
Class ' / /'^■^ 



Book 



U LP 



Copyright }1°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



CHINA'S 

NE^V DAY 





'W.JI 



Princess Su, Whose Husband Gave His Palale i^or 
Christians During Boxer Siege 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 

A STUDY OF EVENTS THAT HAVE 
LED TO ITS COMING 



BY 



ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND, D.D. 



AUTHOR OF 

SOME BY-PRODUCTS OF MISSIONS. COURT LIFE IN CHINA. 
THE CHINESE BOY AND GIRL. CHINESE MOTHER GOOSE. 



PUBLISHED BY 

^i)t Central Committee on ti)t Winittii B>tutjp of 0l\si6ion^ 
Wltit iWebforb, iWagfiacljugetts 



IIS773 

.(44- 



Copyright, April, 1912 



CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON THE UNITED 
STUDY OF MISSIONS 



Frank Wood, Printer 
Boston, Mass. 

^ CLA3i2841 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

FOREWORD ........ vii 

CHAPTER I. 

THE BREAK WITH THE PAST . . 1 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CHINESE WOMAN .... 45 

CHAPTER III. 
y^ AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION . . 88 

»^ CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHINESE CHURCH .... 138 

CHAPTER V. 

MEDICAL WORK ... . . 177 

CHAPTER VI. 
K THE PRINTED PAGE 221 



FOREWORD 

The Central Committee believes that it has been 
led providentially to the study of China at a great 
crisis in her history. Until November the Committee 
confidently expected to publish a book on another sub- 
ject; but the serious illness of the author compelled a 
sudden change. The Committee was led to vv^rite to 
Dr. Headland who responded to the request that he 
write a book on present conditions in China with a 
time limit of six weeks. He has completed the task 
and the Committee issues this unique book on China 
on the date intended. Dr. Headland from his long 
residence in Peking has had the advantage of observing 
at close range the remarkable events and characters of 
the past decade, while Mrs. Headland, in her position 
of physician to the princesses, had unusual opportunities 
to study the women of the highest class. And now 
China has this day, February 12th, been declared a 
Republic. With the study of our book begins a new 
era. Sun Yat Sen, who has done so much to free 
China, is a rare man the highest type of Christian 
patriot. The future of China now depends largely on 
the attitude of the Christian Church and her response 
to the needs of the Chinese. How marvellously ''God 
is working his purpose out." He has opened the doors 
and waits for us to say whether the earth shall be 
filled with His knowledge. 

May the study of this book lead us all to a new 
understanding of His plan and power and to a new 
devotion to his cause. 

Mrs. Henry W. Peabody. 
Miss E. Harriet Stanwood. 
Mrs. Decatur M. Sawyer. 
Mrs. Frank Mason North. 
Miss Grace T. Colburn. 
Miss Rachel Lowrie. 
Mrs. a. V. Pohlman. 
Miss Olivia H. Lawrence. 




The Queue Line, Getting Ready for Church, 
Academy, Nanking 

. Presbyterian Board 




Students, Canton Christian College 

Presbyterian Board 



CHAPTER I 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 



The China which is so rapidly emerging 
could never have been developed by orderly evo- 
lution from the old China so swiftly passing 
away. There had to be a definite break with the 
past, a frank abandonment of certain outgrown 
ideals, and an adoption of certain new principles 
and methods from without. 

One of the most powerful factors in the creation 
of the New China has been and is the process of 
dissociation with the past and a deliberate 
change of attitude. For millenniums China's face 
has been toward the past. Her literature, her 
government, her social life have all deified the 
past and subordinated the present. 

It is the aim of the present chapter to trace j^^^^ ^f 
some of the influences which have contributed to Chapter, 
bring about this most remarkable intellectual revo- 
lution of a whole people (for it is nothing less) 
that the world has ever seen. 

Some such survey is necessary if we are to Necessary to 
measure the factors which to-day are making a Correct Un- 
new China. Without this revolution in view- ^^^^standing. 
point and polity all the other factors would be 
impotent to bring about in a decade changes 
which intelligent observers had expected to 



2 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

take at least a century or two. The first I shall 
mention is the Chino-Japanese War. 
Chino-Japa- In June, 1894, I started from Peking for a trip 

nese War. to Korea. When I boarded the steamer at Tient- 
sin, I had heard no murmurings of war. When 
I landed at Chefoo three days later, 1 went on 
shore amidst companies of Japanese soldiers, 
horses, provisions, ammunition, and all the 
equipments of an army. The bluff was covered 
with Koreans, clothed in white smocks and horse- 
hair hats, sitting smoking long-stemmed pipes, 
as unconcerned as though nothing was happen- 
ing, with no regard for the fact that by their in- 
viting the Chinese to come over and put down a 
rebellion, they had involved the two greatest 
nations of the Orient in a war which was to 
establish the reputation of the one as a fighter, 
and to awaken the other to a realization of her 
weakness. 
Battle of A few nights later I was called by Dr. George 

Assam. Heber Jones, with whom I was staying, to see 

before our door a company of Japanese soldiers 
stacking arms, and then a half hour later to see 
them take up their arms, fall into line, and march 
away as silently as the proverbial Arab. The 
next morning it was reported that the battle of 
Assam had been fought, the Chinese had been 
defeated, and the gun had been fired which was 
to awaken China, subjugate Korea, and make 
Japan, for a time at least, a leader in the progress 
of the Orient. 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 3 

For several years previously the Japanese had Preparing for 
been preparing for this struggle. They had ^^*^- 
their students in our colleges and universities, 
their business men in all the Oriental ports, 
and their army officers studying all the lan- 
guages of Europe and gathering up all the 
information about China that might be of interest 
or assistance in the coming struggle. I myself 
taught the major, who afterwards sounded the 
harbors of the Gulf of Pechelee, distinguished 
himself during the war, and returned as general 
to take charge of the troops in China when it was 
over. 

There was another factor which contributed, Sending New 
though in a more quiet way, to the awakening of Testament 
China. This was the sending of the New Testa- ^°*° ^^\^<^^' 
ment as a birthday present to the Empress 
Dowager. 

In 1894 the Christian women in China — 
European, American and Chinese— decided to 
pay their respects to the Empress Dowager. This 
year she celebrated with great pomp her sixtieth 
birthday. Never perhaps since the days of 
K'ang Hsi and Ch'ien Lung had preparations 
been made on so large a scale. A stone road had 
been built from Peking to the summer palace, 
fifteen' miles west of the capital. Silver was sent 
in from all the provinces in great quantities, and 
presents began to pour in from all parts of the 
empire. The Christian women from England 
and America, and the Christian Chinese ladies. 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Printed -witli 
New Type. 



Chinese Love 
Ceremony- 



decided to give the Empress Dowager a birthday 
present. 

After discussing the matter in several meetings, 
a committee was appointed, and the New Testa- 
ment was selected as the most appropriate present 
to be given on that occasion. New type was at 
once cast; it was printed on the best of foreign 
paper, was bound in silver, embossed bamboo 
pattern, inclosed in a silver box, which was 
placed in a red plush box, which in turn was in- 
closed in a beautifully carved teakwood box, and 
the whole put in an ordinary pine box, and sent 
to the British and American ministers, who sent 
it to the foreign office, whence it was carried to 
the palace to Her Majesty. These ladies put all 
the ceremony they could into the preparation and 
transmission of their present, knowing that cere- 
mony would play as large a part in its acceptance 
as would the gift itself. 

The Chinese love ceremony. We do not. We 
meet a man on the street, and with a wave of the 
hand and a ^'how do you do," we rush on as 
though to overtake the flight of time. The 
Chinese are never in a hurry. They have gone 
quietly and restfully on for so many centuries 
that it never occurs to them that there is any need 
for hurry. A man meets another on the street, 
makes a polite bow, says a few words, makes 
another polite bow and says a few words more, 
then another polite bow, and, with '^I'll see you 
again," passes quietly and slowly on and it seems 
restful to see him do it. 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 5 

The Empress Dowager had the pine box 
opened, as all presents to Her Majesty had to be 
opened, in her presence. There was the beauti- 
fully carved teakwood box, carved like the frame 
of her portrait which is now in the Smithsonian 
Institution in Washington. 

Next appeared the red plush box. Red is the Red tte Sign 
sign of happiness in China. The bride's dress of Happiness, 
is red; the chair in which she rides is red; New 
Year's gifts are wrapped in red and tied with a 
red string, — everything that signifies happiness 
is red, — and so these ladies silently wished the 
Empress Dowager happiness on her sixtieth 
birthday, and she understood the wish. 

Next appeared a silver box suggestive of the silver Box 
silver basis of China's monetary system. Within 
that was the Word of God bound in silver. 

We do not know what influence the New Tes- (i^reatness of 
tament had upon that great woman — and she was tKe Dowager. 
a great woman. She was born in a humble 
home. She was taken into the palace at sixteen 
years of age and made the concubine of the 
Emperor, a condition which no member of the 
Manchu race covets for his daughter. She 
studied until she could read the classical language 
as well as the officials could read it; and she so 
approved herself to the ladies of the court that 
she was elevated to the position of Kuei fei or 
first concubine. She became the mother of the 
Emperor's only son, and was raised to the posi- 
tion of wife. Her husband died when her son 



6 CHINA'S NE W DA T 

was only three years of age, and she contrived to 
have him placed upon the throne, with "herself as 
regent during: his minority. In order to do this 
it was necessary for her to sweep from the board 
seven princes who were anxious to take control 
of affairs. 
Puts Kuang During these years of regency she found time, 

Hsii on among other duties, to make matches for her 

Throne. sistcrs and brothers. She had her younger sister 

married to her husband's younger brother, thus 
making her the mother of the present line of 
rulers. Her son died as soon as he reached his 
majority, and that same night she went out to 
her sister's home, and brought in her three-and-a- 
half-year-old boy. The next morning, when she 
. announced the death of her son, she proclaimed 
this child as his successor under the dynastic 
title of Kuang Hsii, or brilliant succession, with 
herself as regent again during his minority. 
When he failed to rule according to the ideas of 
his people, she was compelled to dethrone him; 
and, when she was about to die, she selected her 
sister's grandson, little Pu Yi, and placed him 
upon the throne. Here we have the spectacle of 
a little girl, born in a humble home, being made 
the concubine of an emperor, the wife of an 
emperor, the mother of an emperor, the maker of 
two emperors, the regent for two emperors, the 
dethroner of an emperor, and the ruler of four 
hundred millions of people for forty-seven years, 
in a country where women are supposed to have 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 7 

no power, — a great woman in the nineteenth 
century. 

It was this great woman to whom these Chris- Tte Biggest 
tian women decided to give a birthday present, Thing m the 
and they selected the New Testament. Whether 
Her Majesty read it or not we do not know, but 
it may have been its inspiration that led her to 
decide to blot out the opium traffic, and to give 
a constitution to her people ; two decisions that 
are worthy of the greatest ruler that has ever sat 
upon the Dragon Throne. 

Whatever its influence upon the Empress Emperor 
Dowager, we know what the result was on the B^ys Bible, 
mind of Kuang Hsii, for the next morning after 
it was taken into the palace, he sent out to the 
American Bible Society and bought an Old and 
New Testament, such as were being sold to the 
common people. 

A few days later a gardener, who furnished pj-ig^^ Visits 
flowers and vegetables to the palace, came to me Palace, 
and said: "Mr. Headland, something unusual 
is taking place in the palace." 

''Why do you think so.'^" I asked. 

"Well," he answered, "the eunuchs won't talk 
about anything but Christianity. They kept me 
talking until dinner time, and when I wanted to 
leave they would not let me go. They continued 
to ply me with questions until I was so hungry 
that I said, 'I must go home and get my 
dinner.'" 

" '' Pieh inang^ pich piang^ ' the eunuchs urged. 



8 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

'Don't be in a hurry, we are just about to have 
a feast brought in, and you must stay and eat 
with us;' and they kept me there till dark, trying 
to find out all they could about the Christian 
religion. Something unusual is taking place." 
Em eror ^ ^^^ days later they invited him to bring the 

Studies assistant pastor into the palace to dine with 

Gospel of them, to teach them more about Christianity; and 

^^^- during the conversation they told my friends that 

the Emperor had a portion of the Gospel of Luke 
copied in large characters each day, which he 
spread out on the table before him, ''and," said 
the eunuch who stood behind his chair while he 
studied, "I can look over his shoulder, and see 
what he is doing, he is studying Luchia fu yin^ 
— the Gospel of Luke." 
Develo ment ^ '^ ^^'^ never understand the awakening of 
ofKuangHsii. China without understanding something of the 
character and development of Kuang Hsii. Re- 
member that he was taken out of the world, where 
he was free to learn everything, into the palace, 
where he was expected to follow in the footsteps 
of his ancestors whose faces were always turned 
toward the past; and where he did not have a 
single child to play with, and only eunuchs, 
serving girls, court ladies and the two Dowagers 
as his associates, with every wish gratified. 
_ , _, The eunuchs went out into the city and bought 

Eunuchs Buy 

Toys for Em- ^^"^ ^^^^ — Chinese toys. He did not like them. 

peror. They finally found a foreign store on Legation 

Street, where they bought him some of those 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 9 

foreign mechanical toys which he wound up and 
set going, and that was what he wanted — some- 
thing that would go. He played until, like 
Budge and Toddy, he wanted to know "what 
made the wheels go wound, " and he broke his toy 
and found a spring within. 

The eunuchs bought him other toys including Watches 
Swiss watches and cuckoo clocks. I went through and Clocks, 
his palace in 1901 with a pass from the American 
soldiers who were guarding the front gate while 
he was away at Sianfu. There was a long 
window along the south side of the room which 
was filled with clocks from one end to the other, 
all ticking a different time. There were tables 
about the room, and clocks on the tables. There 
was a beautiful curly maple desk with a clock 
upon it. I sat down upon a French chair up- 
holstered in red plush, and a music box began to 
play in the seat of the chair. This was attached 
to an electric fan upon the wall which kept me 
cool on that hot August day. It was the Em- 
peror's reading chair, the eunuchs told me. He 
could sit and read, and listen to the music, and 
be kept cool by the electric fan. This boy, taken 
out of the world at three and a half years of age, 
had all these toys of modern times in the palace. 

Then he heard of the huo lun che — the fire- Railroad in 
wheel cart, and he wanted one. He thereupon Palace, 
had a railroad built along the west shore of the 
Lotus Lake in the palace grounds, and two little 
cars and an engine made in Europe large enough 



10 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Steam 
Launclies in 
Lotus Lake. 



Telegrapt. 



Telephone. 



Phonograpli. 



to take the court for a ride on this newly con- 
structed merry-go-round. 

He then heard of the huo lun ch^uan — the fire- 
wheel boat, and he had small steam launches 
brought into the palace and put into the Lotus 
Lake and in the lake at the summer palace, and 
these he could attach to the Empress Dowager's 
barge and take the court for a ride about the 
lake. ' 

Later he heard of a method of sending mes- 
sages by a flash of lightning. He got the tele- 
graph into the palace, and now the most distant 
part of the empire is tied up to the palace by the 
electric wire. 

Then he heard of a method by which one could 
talk for a distance of fifty or a hundred miles, 
and ready to believe anything he heard about 
these foreigners he brought the telephone into 
the palace, and now Peking and most of the 
other Chinese coast cities are cobwebbed with 
telephones. 

Finally he heard about the talk-box. We hap- 
pened to have a phonograph in our physical lab- 
oratory ; the officials came and bought it, and 
took it into the Emperor, and we had a cine- 
matograph for him about the time he was de- 
throned. He brought the great inventions of 
modern times into the palace, including sleighs, 
carriages, automobiles, electric lights, and every- 
thing that would add to his intelligent under- 
standing of the foreigner. Then he had the New 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 11 

Testament, — and this gave him an inspiration, 
and opened up to him a new line of investiga- 
tion. 

As soon as Kuang Hsii began to study his New Report of 
Testament it was commonly reported about Emperor Be- 
Peking that he had become a Christian. It was coming Chris- 
said that he catechised the eunuchs, and would 
not allow them to pass until they confessed that 
they worshiped Jesus Christ; that when he went 
to the temples he did not worship the idols, but 
that he worshiped Tieit Chu^ the Lord • of 
Heaven. 

After Kuang Hsii had studied his New Testa- Emperor 
ment for some weeks, a eunuch came to me from Buys 
the palace, saying: "The Emperor has heard that Books, 
there are a great many books translated from your 
honorable Western language into our miserable 
Chinese language, and he would like to have 
some." Many of the stories, moreover, that 
were currently reported about Peking were con- 
firmed by this eunuch. 

I was in charge of two tract societies and the 
college text-books, and I sent him some books. 
The following day the eunuch came again and 
said, ''The Emperor wants more books." I sent 
him more books. The next day he came with 
the same request, and I complied in a like man- 
ner. Every day for six weeks that eunuch came 
to buy more books for the Emperor, until he had 
bought every book that had been translated out 
of the European languages into Chinese. Some- 



12 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Sent Bicycle 
Into Palace. 



Young Sctol- 
ars Follow 
Emperor's 
Example. 



times I had nothing but a Christian sheet tract. 
Finally I had to go into my wife's private 
library and send him her Chinese medical books. 

One day the eunuch saw my wife's bicycle 
standing on the veranda, and he asked, " Che 
shih she7i 7no che? What kind of a cart is this.f*" 

'''' Na shih ke tze hshig che. That is a self- 
moving cart," I answered. 

''' Tse7i mo chi? How do you ride it?" he 
continued. 

I took it down, and rode a few times around 
the compound. 

*^This is queer," he exclaimed, ''why doesn't 
it fall down.? It only has two wheels." 

"When a thing is moving, it can't fall down," 
I assured him. 

The next day when he came he said, "The 
Emperor wants this bicycle." And so I sent my 
wife's bicycle in to Kuang Hsii, and it was re- 
ported a short time afterwards that in trying to 
ride, his queue had become entangled in the 
back wheel and he had had a fall, and then he 
gave up trying to ride the bicycle as many another 
person has done. 

When the progressive officials and young 
scholars throughout the empire heard that the 
boy Emperor was so deeply interested in all kinds 
of foreign inventions and foreign learning, they 
rummaged the world to get them for him, certain 
that if they succeeded in securing anything new 
or unique, they would have better prospects of 
securing an official position. 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 13 

These same young progressives secured per- Reading 
mission to establish reading clubs, and one of Clubs, 
them asked me to send in their subscription for 
all the leading American, English, German, 
French and Russian magazines, and some of the 
leading newspapers ; not simply that they might 
have some place to go to spend an evening, but 
that they might keep up with the news and 
progress of the world. 

Newspapers and magazines similar to those Newspapers 
conducted by such missionaries as Drs. Young J. andMaga- 
Allen and Timothy Richard were started all over ^i^"' 
the empire, and began to have a perceptible in- 
fluence on the development of a political as well 
as religious sentiment among the people, for 
newspapers up to that time were practically un- 
known. Artists and caricaturists soon arose, 
and it was not long before it began to be a ques- 
tion whether the pilot had complete control of the 
ship of state. English, German and French Dividing 
newspapers in all the open ports were freely ^"^^^• 
discussing the spheres of influence of their re- 
spective governments. They spoke daily, freely, 
impertinently, insultingly, of dividing China up 
among the Powers, until every schoolboy in 
every essay, oration or debate, discussed the best 
methods of reforming their government, and 
making China strong and able to withstand the 
incursions of Europe. 

All this time Kuang Hsii was studying his "China's 
books, — devouring them with a passion which Only Hope." 



14 CHINAS NEW DA 7' 

only those can understand who know the Chinese 
character. Chang Chih-tung, the Viceroy of 
Hunan and Hupeh, was writing his epoch- 
making book, "China's Only Hope," in which 
he was urg-ing the people to study Japan, and the 
scholars to translate books from all the European 
languages into Chinese, but especially those 
books which had contributed to make Japan 
strong. Japan had whipped China; now let 
Japan teach China how she did it. This book 
was sent to Kuang Hsii. He wrote an intro- 
duction or approved of it, and ordered that it be 
published in large editions and scattered broad- 
cast over the empire. Yellow posters advertised 
it on every wall in all the provincial capitals, and 
millions were published and read, often by 
readers on the street corners. 
A Young Kang Yu-wei in the south was writing books 

Confucius. which were causing him to be called the young 
Confucius, and which finally won for him a 
position on the Board of Rites, and as counselor 
of the Emperor himself, one of the largest oppor- 
tunities that was offered to any man during the 
nineteenth century. 
Trip to Japan. After Kuang Hsii had taken a three years' 
course of study in his books and had become 
acquainted with all kinds of modern invention, 
he decided to take a trip to Japan. This was 
changed to a trip to Tientsin, and finally given 
up altogether. He began to issue his reform 
edicts, and seldom perhaps, if ever, in the history 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 15 

of the world were so many people aroused to so 
high a pitch of excitement over the prospects of 
a peaceful reform as were the Chinese. 

Among the most important edicts issued was Edicts — 
one in which he ordered that a Board of Educa- Board of Ed- 
tion be established, with a university in Peking "nation, 
and a college in the capital of each of the 
provinces. The effect of this edict upon the 
empire has been tremendous. Twenty-one years 
ago there was but one school teaching foreign 
learning established by the governm.ent. Now 
there are reported to be more than forty thousand 
schools, colleges and universities engaged in 
propagating the kind of learning in which Kuang 
Hsii was interested. China has entirely over- 
turned her old system of education, — admitted to 
be the greatest that was ever developed by a non- 
Christian people; a system which dominated and 
developed them for fifteen hundred years, — and 
has definitely committed herself to the system of 
the West. 

It is worthy of note also, that the new system American In- 
is almost entirely the result of foreign influence, f luence in Ed- 
Almost all the schools and colleges opened in ^°**^°^- 
China up to that time were by American mis- 
sionaries, and after the American plan. The 
first six colleges and universities established by 
the government were opened for them by five 
men who went to China as missionaries, four of 
whom were Americans. These were Drs. W. 
A. P. Martin, C. D. Tenney, W. M. Hayes, 



16 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



cation. 



Missionary J°^^ ^' Fcrgusson and Timothy Richard. The 
Influence in fii'st public school systcm prepared for the gov- 
Chinese Edu- erniTient was drawn up by Dr. W. M. Hayes for 
Yuan Shi ki, then Governor of Shantung 
Province. This was submitted to the Empress 
Dowager, received her approval, and, after Gov- 
ernor Yuan was made Viceroy of Chihli, was 
put into operation in that province, with some 
modifications by Dr. C. D. Tenney. At the 
present time many of these schools have' been 
closed for lack of funds and competent teachers, 
and we are told that the government is willing to 
allow the missionaries to put a Christian teacher 
into any one of these schools if they will add ten 
to twenty dollars annually toward his support. 
This is one of the greatest opportunities before 
the church to-day. 

A second' important edict issued by Kuang Hsii 
was the establishment of a Board of Railroads. He 
had had his little railroad in the palace for years. 
He had vision enough to see from behind his 
great brick walls the effect that the building 
of railroads would have upon the development of 
the country, and upon his darling project of 
reform. Twenty-one years ago there were but 
one hundred miles of railroad in the whole em- 
pire. Another had been built at VVu Sung in the 
region of Shanghai, but the Chinese bought it, 
and then tore it up and threw it into the river. 
At the present time there are about seven thou- 
sand miles built, five thousand miles projected, 



Edict — 
Board of 
R.ailroads 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 17 

and the Chinese have just borrowed fifty millions 
of dollars from Europe and America to build 
another thousand miles of road from Hankow to 
Szechuan. 

A third important edict ordered the establish- Board of 
ment of a Board of Mines. There is probably Mines. 
no country in the world richer in mineral deposits 
than China and the countries around her border. 
Coal, both anthracite and bituminous, iron, gold, 
silver, quicksilver, tin, copper and precious 
stones — especially jade — are found in rich depos- 
its. And yet I have seen an old blind woman sit- 
ting on the bare ground in the cornfield on a cold 
winter day, feeling about her if by chance she 
might find a few weeds or cornstalks to light a 
fire under her brick bed and cook her morsel of 
food, oblivious of the fact that just beneath her 
were great veins of coal, if only they dared open 
the earth and take it out. This they did not dare 
to do. Do you ask why? There were spirits in 
the earth, in the hills, in the rivers, in the moun- 
tains — spirits everywhere. They did not dare to 
open mines for fear of disturbing the Feng shua^ 
and destroying the luck of the neighborhood. 
The only mines they opened were those where 
the veins of coal appeared in the side of the hill. 
(I have heated my house in Peking with as good 
anthracite coal as can be found in my native state 
of Pennsylvania. And yet every bushel of coal I 
have burned during all these years was brought 
into the city from the hills twenty-five or thirty 



18 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



^Volnen'a In- 
fluence in 
China's 
Reform. 



^Dismisses 
Officials. 



Emperor 
Sends for 
Yuan Shi ki. 



miles distant, on the backs of camels, donkeys 
or mules.) Now the mines are being properly 
opened and a railroad connects them with the 
capital and with a system of roads that go east, 
west, north and south from Peking. 

Kuang Hsii issued twenty-seven such great 
edicts in about twice as many days. Why? Was 
this because the Christian women from England 
and America, with their Christian Chinese sisters, 
sent the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the palace? 
It was the sending of the New Testament that 
led the Emperor to buy books, and it was the 
study of these books that gave him his vision of 
a great progressive government. 

By one of these edicts Kuang Hsii dismissed 
six presidents and vice presidents of the Board of 
Rites, because they refused the people the. privi- 
lege of sending sealed memorials into the palace. 
These six men, with other disaffected officials, 
went to the summer palace, where the Empress 
Dowager had been quietly spending the hot 
months of the summer of 1898, taking no hand in 
his reforms, and begged her to come into the city 
and teach him how to guide the ship of state. 
She listened to them, dismissed them, but gave 
no indication of what she would do. 

When Kuang Hsii heard what they had done, 
he sent for Yuan Shi ki, who was in charge 
of 12,500 troops at Tientsin, summoned him to 
an interview, ordered him to return to Tientsin, 
massacre Jung Lu, the Governor General of the 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 19 

province, bring his troops, and imprison the 
Empress Dowager in the summer palace, and not 
allow her to interfere with his reforms. At this 
time Kang Yu-wei was the chief adviser of the 
Emperor. 

Yuan knew that to carry out this order w^ith Yuan Dis- 
so small a number of troops at his command obeys Em- 
would bring on a revolution. Jung Lu was his peror. 
superior officer. Both of them and the Emperor 
also had received their positions at the hands of 
the Empress Dowager, and to assassinate the 
one and imprison the other on the order of the 
boy Emperor would bring calamity. He there- 
fore went to Jung Lu, showed him the order, and 
consulted as to what it would be best to do. 

Jung Lu took the order, went to Peking by 1^^^ l^ 
the first train, hurried to the summer palace, 
showed it to the Empress Dowager, and urged 
her to take the throne and save the country, while 
he remained in general control of the army. 
The Empress Dowager ordered her sedan chair Emperor D« 
and her most faithful eunuchs, hurried to the posed, 
city, imprisoned the Emperor in the winter 
palace, and once more took control of the 
government. 

Kang Yu-wei fled. The Emperor had tried pfve Youn^ 
to escape to the British Legation, but was pre- Reformers 
vented. The Empress Dowager arrested five of Beheaded, 
the young reformers, among whom was Kang 
Yu-wei 's brother, and had them summarily be- 
headed for having misled their ruler, — one of the 



20 



CHINAS NE W DA T 



CKinese Port 
Taken by 
Germany. 



Russia Takes 
Two Ports. 

Britain Won. 
France Won. 



most culpable acts, so far as we know, that the 
Empress Dowager ever performed. 

While the Emperor was issuing his great 
reform edicts in harmony with the wishes of the 
European governments, they ought to have given 
him their sympathy and support. Did they do 
so.f* 

About this time there were two German priests 
massacred in Shantung. The German Emperor 
was anxious to get a foothold in the East, and so 
ordered the troops to be sent to China, to 
make themselves a terror in the Orient. This 
they did. They compelled China to pay a 
heavy indemnity to the families of the two priests, 
and to rebuild the property destroyed. Surely 
that was enough. But it was not enough for the 
German Emperor. He took the port of Kiaochiao 
with fifty miles of territory around it. That 
made Yii Hsien, the Governor of the province, 
angry, and he established the Big Knife Society 
with the intention of driving the Germans out. 
Germany, however, had not gotten enough, and 
she compelled the Chinese government to allow 
her to build all the railroads and open all the 
mines in the province. She had her sphere of 
influence. 

As soon as Russia learned what Germany had 
done, she demanded and received Port Arthur 
and Dalney, without any provocation whatever. 
Britain then took Wei Hai Wei, likewise with- 
out provocation. France took Kuang Chou 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 21 

Wan, and Italy demanded San Men. Never in 
the history of the world was a government treated 
more unjustly than China was treated by her 
strong and avaricious neighbors, when she was 
putting forth all her efforts at internal reform. 
It was at this point that the Empress Dowager 
took the throne. She at once issued secret 
edicts to the viceroys, telling them, ''We will 
give no more ports." She ordered them to resist 
the incursions of Europe by force, saying, ''We 
will trust heaven and the justice of our cause." 

People often ask, "Do the Chinese like the Do tte 
foreigners?" What is there about that kind of Chinese Like 
treatment that was calculated to make them like ^^^ 
Europe? The Empress Dowager was angry. 
Can we wonder? 

For two years the country was in a ferment Boxer 
which resulted in the Boxer uprising of 1900. Uprising. 
But it is worthy of note that the Empress Dow- 
ager persistently refused to take part with the 
Boxers, until their leaders forged a demand on 
the part of the foreign ministers that she vacate 
the throne and reinstate Kuang Hsii. Jung Lu 
was in charge of the Imperial troops in Peking; 
and but for him and the use of his troops and 
his guns in defence of the foreigners, the lega- 
tions must have fallen, and the Chinese Chris- 
tians, missionaries and ministers must all have 
been massacred. This is clearly brought out by 
Bland and Backhouse in their book, "China 
Under the Empress Dowager." 



Yuan's 
Mother Dies 



22 CHINAS NEW DAT 

The Court in For two years reform was at a standstill. But 
Exile. while the court was in exile at Sianfu, the 

Empress Dowager reissued all the important 
edicts of Kuang Hsii, with a determination, a 
condition and a power back of the edicts that they 
should be carried out. Slowly but surely this 
was being done. Yuan Shi ki was made 
Governor of Shantung, and at once he began to 
put into operation, with the assistance of Dr. 
Hayes, his great educational enterprises. While he 
was engaged in this his mother died. According 
to the customs of the officials he sent in his resig- 
nation. The Empress Dowager refused to accept 
it, saying that his services were so necessary in the 
present crisis that he must retain his office. 
*^But, " she added, "it is quite proper that you 
resign. I will, however, appoint an official of 
your own rank to pay his respects to your 
mother's spirit, and the fact that she has borne a 
son who is so great as to be indispensable to the 
government will be sufficient consolation to her 
spirit to allow a substitute to worship in your 
place." 
Woman Saves The court now returned to Peking, and it is 
the Day. worthy of note that it was a woman in this most 

important crisis that saved the situation. The 
Empress Dowager had every reason to hate the 
governments of Europe. She was giving her 
life to save her country; they, with enough of 
their own, were trying to wrest it from her. In 
this situation Mrs. Conger, the wife of as noble 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 23 

a Christian minister as ever represented a Chris- 
tian government at a non-Christian court, in the 
face of a carping, critical world, held out her 
Christian love and sympathy to the woman who, 
the world thought, had tried to take her life. It 
is the one bright Christian oasis in the diplo- 
matic relations of those dark years; and I am 6i 
the opinion that it was the inspiration that came 
from the sympathy and suggestions of Mrs. 
Conger and her associates that had much to do 
with the attitude of the last years of the Empress 
Dowager's life toward the great and burning 
problems of her country and her people. 

All her life the Empress Dowager had been in Empress 
favor of progress. She had kept the greatest of Dowager 
the progressive officials about her, both Chinese * Progressive, 
and Manchus. Li Hung Chang and Wang Wen- 
shao. Prince Ching and Jung Lu were always at 
her service. She now began on the largest 
moral, social and political reforms that have ever 
been undertaken in the empire. She conceived 
the gigantic undertaking of destroying the opium 
traffic, regardless of revenue, and thus blotting out 
the worst curse that was ruining her people. The 
extent of this undertaking can only be compared 
with an effort to destroy the liquor traffic in the 
United States; and we have often thought that 
only a woman, who knows not the hold that 
habits have upon the appetites of men, would 
have committ'ed herself to such a task. 

It is not necessary to review the development 



24 CHINAS NE W DAT 

Opium of the opium traffic, nor to refer particularly to 

Reform. Britain's part therein. Suffice it to say that it 

had secured a stronger hold upon the Chinese 
than alcohol upon the American people. Thou- 
sands of acres of land all over the empire that 
should have been used for growing wheat and 
corn, were used for growing the poppy, and time 
was spent upon its cultivation that would have 
been better spent upon the production of food 
stuffs. 
Decrease In 1906 she issued an edict that the poppy cul- 

Ten Per Cent tivation should be decreased one tenth each year 
Annually. £qj. ^]^g next ten years; there being an agreement 
with Great Britain that, if China should do so, 
she would decrease her importations ten per cent 
annually until the traffic was done away with. 
A register was ordered to be made of all con- 
sumers of the drug, — estimated at forty per cent 
of the whole population, — and of the quantity 
consumed. Those who were under sixty years 
of age were ordered to diminish their consump- 
tion by not less than twenty per cent each year, 
until they were free from its use. The govern- 
ment offered to provide medicine free of cost to 
assist the patient in breaking himself of the 
habit. To those over sixty years of age, together 
with the princes and nobles and other magnates 
of the empire, a certain relaxation of these rules 
was allowed. All minor officials under sixty 
years of age were ordered to drop it entirely, and 
there would be no toleration of those who became 



THK BREAK WITH THE PAST 25 

addicted to the drug after the date of that edict. 
The cultivation of the poppy would be gradually 
forbidden. 

In the Province of Szechuan certain of the Farmers Try 
farmers seeing that most of the others had quit to Avoid 
planting the poppy, and thinking that the drug ^^^• 
would be in demand, planted large fields which 
the viceroy promptly sent his lackeys to dig up. 
The next year they planted their fields again, and 
again the viceroy destroyed them. Once more 
they planted their fields. The viceroy said to 
his officials, "This is not simply disobedience, 
this is rebellion," and, sending forth his execu- 
tioners, he dug their graves in their poppy fields, 
on the edge of which he had them kneel, and 
with his axe he smote off their heads, and tumbled 
their bodies into their graves. 

Bishop Bashford, who for the past several Decrease in 
years has been traveling over the provinces, ^°^y^ Culti- 
writes: ^^VVhere a few years ago I saw great 
fields of poppies, now I see only fields of waving 
grain." The Province of Szechuan is by far the 
largest poppy producing area in the empire; and 
it is in this province where the most drastic 
punishment is meted out. If they can control it 
in this section, they can prohibit it throughout 
the rest of the empire. 

In 1906 the Empress Dowager appointed a Commission 
commission headed by Tai Hung-Tzu and Tuan on Constitu- 
Fang, to which she attached her own nephew, *^°°- 
the Duke Tse, and ordered them to visit the 



26 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Female Edu- 
cation. 



Decree on 
Constitution. 



great governments of Europe and America for 
the purpose of making a study of the political 
institutions, with a purpose on their return to 
offer valuable suggestions concerning the im- 
provement of their own. The object of the 
Empress Dowager was to discover what kind of 
a constitution would be best to give to her people. 
These commissioners did not, however, confine 
themselves to the study of political conditions. 
All national reform necessarily involves educa- 
tional and social reforms as well; and so they 
were ordered to devote special attention to the 
study of education, as found in the schools, col- 
leges and universities, and to the methods of 
social amelioration in prisons and asylums for 
the insane and the poor. And they said: "It is 
a matter of peculiar interest that the Empress 
Dowager charged us to inquire especially into 
the education of girls in the United States, since 
she hopes on our return to be able to found a 
school for the education of the daughters of the 
princes.'' When this commission returned to 
Peking, its report was published in one hundred 
and twenty-seven volumes. 

The following decree will indicate the will of 
the Empress Dowager in the matter of giving a 
constitution to the people: — 



We have reverently received the excellent decree of 
the great Empress Dowager strictly ordering the offi- 
cials and people of Peking and of the provinces to carry 
out completely by 1917, all the preparatory work, so 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 27 

that at the appointed time the constitution may be 
proclaimed. . . . Members of parliament must assem- 
ble. . . . From ourselves down to the officials and 
people high and low all must sincerely obey the excel- 
lent decree. . . . Let there be no ''reabsorption of 
sweat" in this matter. Our hope is that this will cer- 
tainly be carried out. Let the officials and the prov- 
inces look not idly on and procrastinate, delaying the 
opportune time. Let patriotism be shown forth. Exert 
yourselves that constitutional government may be 
established. And court and "wild" people may have 
peace. 

In October and November, 1909, elections were Provincial 
held and the first provincial assemblies met, and Assemblies. 
we are told that: ''To-day marks an era in the 
establishment of constitutional government in 
China. In obedience to the Imperial decrees of 
October 19, 1907, and of July 27, 1908, in each 
of twenty-two provinces of China proper and 
Manchuria and the new dominion of provincial 
deliberative assemblies, elections have been in 
progress for some time past, and the assemblies 
meet in accordance with the regulations for the 
first time to-day, October 14th." 

Halls were erected for the assemblies to meet 
wherever a viceroy or a governor had his seat. 
The number of members varied from 140 in 
Chihli and 114 in Chekiang to 30 in each of the 
three Manchurian provinces. 

After the forty days' session of the assemblies Results of 
had ended, we are told that: ''A study of the re- Assemblies. 
ports of the proceedings of the first session of the 
Provincial Assemblies supports the contention 



28 CHINAS NEW DAT 

that the Throne has been justified in granting the 
subjects of the empire a limited right of speech 
through their chosen representatives. The pro- 
grams of debate have been strictly in accordance 
v^^ith the Imperial edict, and the proceedings 
have been marked with dignity and decorum. 
The net result justifies the remark made by a 
high authority, w^ho has been given a special 
opportunity of forming a judgment, that the 
members have fulfilled their appointed task of 
w^orking in harmony with the executive author- 
ities in the interests of their respective provinces. ' ' 
Another writes on the sixth of November, 1908, 
in a different strain. He says: — 

Signs of Already, in the opening debates of these Provincial 

Storm. Assemblies, one apprehends the coming chaos, the first 

whispering of the approaching storm. Peking, pan- 
oplied in ignorance and petrified in mediaeval state- 
craft, trifles with Demos at its doors, evidently hoping 
that the Assemblies will consume their own smoke, and 
that the Mandarin may be preserved by the time-hon- 
ored device of holding the balance between contending 
classes. But the spirits which the Vermilion Pencil has 
called from the celestial deep, though elected with all 
possible precautions of ^'silk-coated" franchise, and 
under the close direction of viceroys and governors, 
show signs of scant respect for the Central Government 
and little sympathy for its difficulties. Already, within 
a fortnight of their birth, many of the Assemblies have 
passed resolutions denouncing several of the govern- 
ment's pet proposals, — e. g:, the opium monopoly, the 
stamp tax, and the foreign loan for the Hankow- 
Canton, and the Hankow-Szechuan railways. Concern- 
ing the vexed q^uestion of the railway loan, the Hupei 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 29 

Assembly is reported to have endorsed, without a dis- 
sentient, their chairman's declaration that the govern- 
ment's scheme should be resisted ''to the death." 

While I am not inclined to sympathize with 
most of the quotation I have just given, and 
especially with the style of his expression, in the 
light of the present rebellion, the last two sen- 
tences seem almost like a prophecy. The present 
rebellion began in Szechuan in an uprising of 
the people against taxation and the foreign loan 
for the Hankow-Szechuan railway, and the Re- 
publican form of government was a later addition 
by the young reformers of the south. 

Turn to the edict issued by the baby Emperor 
Hsuan Tung, October 30, 1911, and see how 
nearly his confessions conform to the predictions 
in the above report. He says: — 

It is now three years since we ascended the throne, cj. ^ i 

•^ ' edict and 

and our object has always been to promote the happi- p yj 

ness of our subiects. But in the executive departments . . 

•* ^ rising, 

we have employed princes of the Imperial Blood which 

is contrary to constitutional government, and in rail- 
way matters we have followed policies which are not in 
conformity with public opinion. . . . The wealth of 
the people has been exacted to a great extent, while not 
a single measure of benefit has been given to them in 
return . . . consequently there was the uprising in 
Szechuan closely followed by the outbreak in Hupeh. 
. . . As to the wiping out of the distinction between 
the Chinese and the Manchus, several edicts have 
already been issued in the preceding reign, and they 
will soon be put into actual practice. 

Such I think may be considered the three im- 



30 



CHINAS NE W DA 7 



Causes of 

Present 

Uprising. 



mediate causes of the present uprising. Firsts 
the levying- of taxes upon the people for the pur- 
pose of building railways or paying salaried offi- 
cials, and then of effecting an enormous loan 
from the governments of Europe and America. 
Second^ of employing so many Princes of the 
Blood in the most lucrative governmental posi- 
tions — a species of nepotism, instituted perhaps 
largely by the late Empress Dowager ; and Thirds 
making unnecessary distinctions between Chinese 
and Manchus, though several years ago an edict was 
issued allowing them to marry, and one at least 
of Prince Ching's sons has married a Chinese 
lady. 

Another important section of the edict given 
above is as follows: — 



Political Of- 
fenders Par- 
doned. 



From the earliest ages a ban on political offenders 
has been regarded as to be avoided, because it kills 
talent and smothers the manly spirit. Political theories 
change with the times, and what was regarded as offen- 
sive in former times may be accepted views to-day. 
Although while abroad such political offenders may 
have incurred blame by sensational statements, yet they 
have transgressed the bounds because thej are enthu- 
siastic over political reforms. .Their feelings are par- 
donable. A general amnesty is now clearly promulgated 
and there is to be a new beginning of things. All 
political offenders since 1898, all men who on account 
of political opinions have gone into exile, for fear of 
punishment, and all those participating against their 
will in the recent disturbances renew their allegiance to 
the government, will have their past forgiven and will 
be considered as loving subjects. 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 31 

This is intended to include such mjen as Gen- 
eral Li, Kang Yu-wei, and all those who fled at 
the time of the dethronement of Kuang Hsii in 
1898. 

One of the most remarkable changes that is Ckange in 
coming over China is the change in her Ian- Language, 
guage, not simply by the additions of new scien- 
tific and other terms, but in all phases of her 
thought and expression. It began after the Boxer 
rebellion in 3900 when the foreign soldiers, who 
were not able to talk Chinese, undertook to make 
purchases from the Chinese. When they offered 
less than the article was worth the dealer would 
wave his hand and say pu go pen^ '^not up to the 
average, " meaning that what they offered was not 
equal to what the* thing cost. This happened so 
often that -pu go pen was relegated to the realm 
of slang. 

In this same line Dr. A. J. Brown reports a Illustrative 
young missionary as saying: — Example 



Les. 



There are six of us studying Chinese together. Our 
teachers tell us that we must pay more attention to 
the new words now coming into use. I do not mean 
the host of scientific terms being turned into Chinese, 
but the miscellaneous phrases coined chiefly since 1900 
to meet the needs of the new style of thought. These 
expressions have gained currency mainly through the 
newspapers, and so we go to the newspapers to find 
them, rather than to the sinologues whose vocabularies 
were acquired in anti-Boxer days. There is one new 
word that everybody glibly fecites to the inquiring new- 
comer; it is the word for tdeal, meaning literally, "the 



Postal Ser- 
vice. 



32 CHINAS NEW DAT 

thing jou have your eye on." A fit companion to this 
is a new way of speaking of a man's purpose ici life; 
''his naagnetic needle points in such and such a 
direction." A group of new expressions have t'ne fol- 
lowing meanings: society^ reforvi^ the public gonod, con- 
stitutional government, protection of life, tak'nig the 
initiative, reinovi?ig obstructions, to volunteer' one's service. 
These indicate the direction in which the winds of 
thought are blowing in China. Freedom of religion is 
another new phrase in Chinese ; so is a term ixieaning 
to educate, as distinguished from to instruct. The use 
of the latter was illustrated by a Chinese whijn he de-. 
clared that the Y. M. C. A. school in Tientsin was 
better than the native schools, because it educated its 
pupils, developing them both in morals and in knowl- 
edge, whereas the Chinese schools just handed out 
chunks of knowledge for them to swallow as they 
chose. 

The expansion of the Imperial Chines«J postal 
system in recent years has been enormous. The 
postal routes cover 88,000 miles, of which '68,000 
miles are courier lines. The number of post 
offices open in 1901 was 176. In 1907 this 
number had increased to 2,803, while in 1908, 
it had grown to 3,493. The number of postal 
articles handled in 1901 was in the neighborhood 
of 10,000,000; in 1907 there were 168,000,000, 
and in 1908 no less than 252,000,000. Again in 
1901 the number of parcels handled was 127,000 
which together weighed 250 tons, while in 1907, 
there were 1,920,000 parcels which weighed 
5,509 tons, and still later in 1908 there were 
2,445,000 parcels which weighed 27,155 tons; 
an indication of the tremendous progress that is 



^iJi . 




Prince Chun with Young Emperor and Younger 
Brother 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 33 

being- made in this one enterprise that was in- 
stituted and developed by Sir Robert Hart. 

The expansion in other lines is quite equal to Railway 
that of the postal system. In 1876 China had 1-i Service, 
miles of railway. In 1881 there were 144 miles; 
in 1889, 566; now there are more than 6,300 
miles, while additional lines are being surveyed 
and provided for. 

A score of years ago the telegraph service con- Telegraph 
nected only a few cities near the coast, and the and Tele- 
telephone was unknown. Now more than 40,000 ^ 
miles of wire reach all the leading centers of 
population, and hundreds of yamens, business 
houses, homes and palaces are equipped with 
telephones. 

Great cities all along the coast are lit up with Clean Cities. 

electric lights, where formerly little tin lamps, 

the size of those of our coal miners, in paper 

covers on four posts, were lit only on moonlight 

nights. 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

"Many officials understand Protestant missionaries 
far better than they did a dozen years ago. Instances of 
personal friendship are much more numerous. Pre- 
fects, Taotais, Governors and Viceroys have visited 
mission schools and hospitals and manifested keen 
interest. In the fall of 1907, twenty-five missionaries 
representing various Boards were in conference at 
Tsinan-fu, the capital of the Province of Shantung, and 
inquired whether the Governor would receive a com- 
mittee of three to pay respects in behalf of the confer- 
ence. He replied that he would be glad to have the 
missionaries call in a body. When they did so, they 



34 CHINAS NEW DAT 

were received with every mark of cordiality. The 
Governor returned the call the following day, accom- 
panied by a number of high officials and a military 
escort, and he invited all the missionaries to a feast at 
his yamen the same evening. There he again received 
the missionaries with every honor. The feast was 
served in foreign style and would have done credit to 
any hotel in the homeland. The Governor made an 
address, in which he spoke in high terms of the work of 
the missionaries and the help which they were giving 
in many ways to his people. This was the official who, 
while holding a high position in the Province of Shan-si 
during the Boxer Uprising, was commanded by his 
Governor, Yu Hien, notorious for the murder of 
seventy missionaries, to kill all the missionaries resid- 
ing in his district. He promptly assembled forty mis- 
sionaries, but sent them under military escort to a place 
of safety, saying that he could not kill good and law- 
abiding men and women." (Arthur J. Brown.) 

Dr. Martin, in a chapter of his ''Awakening of 
China," p. 179, has a significant postscript: — 

''It is the fashion to speak slightingly of the Boxer 
trouble, and to blink the fact that the movement which 
led to the capture of Peking and the flight of the court 
was a serious war. The southern viceroys had under- 
taken to maintain order in the south. Operations were 
therefore somewhat localized. . . . Whether this was 
the effect of diplomatic dust thrown in their eyes or 
not, it vj as fiction. How bitterly the Empress Dowager 
was bent on exterminating the foreigner, may be 
inferred from her decree ordering the massacre of for- 
eigners and their adherents — a savage edict which the 
southern satraps refused to obey. A similar inference 
may be drawn from the summary execution of four 
ministers of state for remonstrating against throwing in 
the fortunes of the empire ivith the Boxer party.''"' 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 35 

"In 1894 occurred the Chinese-Japanese War, the 
immediate cause being the anger of Japan over China's 
interference with her plans in Korea. Japan expelled 
the Chinese from the Korean peninsula, and also took 
possession of districts in Manchuria. China's defeat 
might have been more humiliating even than it was, for 
Peking was threatened, but the bullet lodged in the head 
of Li Hung Chang, China's great statesman, who had 
been dispatched to Japan to sue for peace, caused his 
appeal to be granted wiJ;h more easy conditions than 
would otherwise have been possible, for the Mikado 
was justly ashamed of the cowardly act. China's wiser 
and more open-minded body of statesmen, seeing how 
the adoption of Western methods had given overwhelm- 
ing strength to their small and despised island neighbor, 
set themselves to work to reform their ancient empire, 
encouraging Kuang Hsu in his studies and researches 
in Western books ; and in rapid succession were issued 
edicts dealing with every department of state — too 
radical for the conservatives — too radical perhaps for 
this 'ancestor of nations' to whom ages past and gone 
and 'dead men are more of a live issue' than to any 
other nation. Even when Kuang Hsii reached a suitable 
age to have the reins of government given into his 
hands, and the regency was (nominally) given up by 
the Empress Dowager, she still kept her hand firmly 
upon the affairs of state. And in the light of past history 
the coup d'etat of 1898 is not surprising when the 
sceptre was taken in real earnest by this able and ruth- 
less woman, Kuang Hsii in surrendering begging to be 
'taught how to rule.' 

"The reactionary party in power's dislike for foreign 
methods, and hatred of foreigners was fostered by for- 
eign aggression. 

"In 1897 Germany seized Kiao Chow in the Province 
of Shantung, calling it a 'lease' for ninety-nine years, 
Russia followed by taking a 'lease' of Port Arthur the 



36 CHINAS NEW DAT 

next spring. England and France next came in for 
their share, the one 'leasing' Wei Hai Wei, the other 
Kuang Chou Wan. 

''The Chinese were in no way deceived by these 
'leases,' they knew it meant permanent occupation, — 
truly the 'slicing of the melon' was going on apace ! 

"These with various other demands led to the encour- 
agement of the Boxers to wage war upon everything and 
everyone 'foreign' — railways, telegraphs, schools, 
hospitals, merchandise, Christians, and led to the terri- 
ble revenge of 1900." (A Missionary.) 

"The moral character of the Chinese is a book 
written in strange letters, which are more complex and 
difficult for one of another race, religion and language 
to decipher than their own singularly compounded 
word-symbols. In the same individuals, virtues and 
vices, apparently incompatible, are placed side by side. 
Meekness, gentleness, docility, industry, contentment, 
cheerfulness, obedience to superiors, dutifulness to 
parents, and reverence for the aged, are in one and the 
same person, the companions of insincerity, lying, flat- 
tery, treachery, cruelty, jealousy, ingratitude, avarice 
and distrust of others." (Archdeacon Gray.) 

"It is an abuse of terms, to say that they are a highly 
moral people. A morality that forgets one half of the 
decalogue must be wonderfully deficient, however com- 
plete it may be in the other." (Lay.) 

"Such Europeans as settle in China, and are eye 
witnesses of what passes, are not surprised to hear that 
mothers kill or expose several of their children; nor 
that parents sell their daughters for a trifle, nor that 
the empire is full of thieves; and the spirit of avarice 
universal. They are rather surprised that greater 
crimes are not heard of during seasons of scarcity. If 
we deduct the desires so natural to the unhappy, the in- 
nocence of their habits would correspond well enough 
with their poverty and hard labour." (Premare.) 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 37 

''Absence of truth, and uprightness and honour, — 
this is a most appalling void, and, unfortunately, it 
meets one in all classes and professions of the people. 
I do not refer to money matters, for, as a rule, they 
stand well in this respect." (Dr. Williamson.) 

''Black is the mourning with us; white, grey and 
blue, with the Chinese, and the shoes, as well as cap, 
hair and clothes, all show it. Red is the sign of rejoic- 
ing, and is consequently used at marriages." (Dyer 
Ball.) 

"When children die they are not always coffined, but 
the bodies are often put into a box. Amongst the Can- 
tonese this may, perhaps, be done in eight cases out of 
ten, and the corpses of infants which are seen floating 
in rivers and pools and lying by the wayside or on the 
hill slopes are many of them those which are thus in- 
decently cast aside without heathen burial, though 
some of them are the bodies which have been exposed 
or killed outright by their inhuman parents." (Dyer 
Ball, "Things Chinese.") 

"Common report in China, as elsewhere, is usually 
based on some foundation of truth, and in Peking, 
where the mass of the population has always been con- 
spicuously loyal to Tzil Hsi, there have never been two 
opinions as to the extravagance and general profligacy 
of her Court, and of the evils of the eunuch regime. 
Nor is there room for doubt as to the deplorable effect 
exercised by these vicious underlings on weak and un- 
disciplined Emperors, rulers of decadent instincts, often 
encouraged in vicious practices to their speedy undo- 
ing." (Bland and Backhouse, "China Under the Em- 
press Dowager.") 

"If any 'Old China hand' had been told beforehand 
that the Emperor and the Empress Dowager would die 
within twenty-four hours of each other, yet that the 
succession would be quietly arranged with no suggestion 



38 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

of outward discontent, he would have smiled a knowing 
smile and would have outlined a much more probable 
line of events, but he would have been quite astray. It 
is no novelty in China to have long minorities in the 
palace, and the past hundred years has had fully its 
share. Yet in this instance the selection both of a new 
Emperor and a Regent seemed so clearly the best pos- 
sible that after it became obvious that there was to be 
no uprising or popular clamor, we seemed indeed to be 
entering upon a lagoon of peace, such as China had 
not known for more than a century. A year and a half 
of the rule of the Prince Regent, however, made it 
obvious that far too much had been expected from his 
good intentions, and that his qualifications for the diffi- 
cult task laid upon him were extremely inadequate. 
The sudden and curt dismissal of Yuan Shi ki opened 
a new window into the central machinery of the Chinese 
government and made it plain that personal considera- 
tions overtop the interests of the state, as has so often 
although by no means uniformly been the case through 
the long course of Chinese history. 

''The opening decade of the twentieth century has 
been marked in China by one of the most singular 
phenomena in history — the relatively rapid rise to self- 
consciousness and to world-consciousness of the 
Chinese people as a whole. It has long been recog- 
nized that the Chinese have always been in many 
of their social habits essentially democratic; the 
theoretically absolute rule resting (theoretically) 
upon popular approbation. But this approbation has 
always been comparatively inarticulate. What were 
the real motives that led the late Grand-Dowager 
Empress to give her cordial approval to the introduction 
of a 'Constitution' in China we have no means of 
knowing, but whatever they may have been the step 
was one of far-reaching importance, certainly for 
China and perhaps for the world. It is evident that but 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 39 

a microscopic fraction of the people of China have any 
idea at all what is connoted by the word 'constitution' 
now so incessantly on the lips of talkers and the pens 
of writers, but they look forward to its introduction as 
the opening of a golden era, instead of an embarkation 
on 'the storm-tossed sea of liberty.' By what processes 
are these innumerable millions to learn the meaning of 
that mighty and mystic term, to distinguish between 
liberty and license to be schooled in that self-restraint 
which involves co-operation, the subordination of the 
present to the future, and especially that of the indi- 
vidual to the community? 

"Nothing has so showed the temper of the new China 
as her treatment of the opium reform, to which a few 
sentences must be devoted. It is important to remem- 
ber that the avowed object is to 'make China strong.' 
Five years ago it was something of a risk to assume 
(as some of us did assume) that the Chinese govern- 
ment was in earnest. This is now everywhere admitted 
by those whose opinion is of any value. The great 
opium conference in Shanghai in 1909 may be said to 
have focused the sentiment of the world against this 
deadly drug, and seems to have been the means of a 
slow but definite change of view among the journals of 
the Far East, many of which had maintained an attitude 
of invincible skepticism as to the real intentions of 
China. She has proved ready to sacrifice between one 
hundred and one hundred and fifty million taels of 
revenue, which is the highest proof of her intentions. 
That the poppy plant is no longer grown in several 
of the provinces which most largely produced it, seems 
to be matter of trustworthy testimony. That many 
opium smokers have been induced to leave off smoking, 
and that some have died in the attempt, is also well 
known. The drug has enormously increased in price, 
and it can no longer be afforded by the poor. Great 
quantities of morphia have found their way into China, 



40 CHINA S NE VV DA T 

a substitute much worse than the original. Against 
this it is difficult effectively to guard. None of these 
facts, nor all of them combined, prove that China has 
given up opium, or that she will do so. That is a 
matter which of necessity must require at least another 
decade or two after all growth or visible importation 
ceases. China is full of buried opium totally beyond 
the reach of assessors or inquisitors, sufficient to fur- 
nish a moderate supply for a long time to come. There 
may for aught that appears be a steady leakage from. 
Persia, etc., through Central Asia. And in any case 
the problem is so vast that it can no more be under- 
taken offhand and achieved like the building of the 
Great Wall under the Ch'in Emperor than can any 
other reform which is as much a moral as an economic 
question. That China will be successful in the end we 
have faith to believe, but it is a distant goal and will 
require strong and steady efforts." (''China Mission 
Year Book.") 

In ''China Under the Empress Dowager" one read 
of the following proclamation which was placarded all 
over the city, in accordance with the Empress Dowager's 
orders issued to Prince Chuang. 

REWARDS 

''Now that all foreign churches and chapels have 
been razed to the ground, and that no place of refuge 
or concealment is left for the foreigners, they must un- 
avoidably scatter, flying in every direction. Be it there- 
fore known and announced to all men, scholars and 
volunteers, that any person found guilty of harbouring 
foreigners will incur the penalty of decapitation. For 
every male foreigner taken alive a reward of 50 taels 
will be given ; for every female 40 taels, and for every 
child 30 taels ; but it is to be clearly understood that 
they shall be taken alive, and that they shall be genuine 
foreigners. Once this fact has been duly authenticated, 
the reward will be paid without delay. A special proc- 
lamation, requiring reverent obedience." 

''I command that all foreigners — men, women and 
children, old and young — be summarily executed. Let 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 41 

not one escape, so that mj Empire may be purged of 
this noisome source of corruption, and that peace may 
be restored to my loyal subjects." 

"The present movement is in great contrast with the 
Boxer one of 1900. The latter stood in the sign of a 
crass and demonic heathenism. The former, even more 
than the Tai Ping rebellion, is touched with a certain 
degree at least, of Christian influence. This the press 
in the treaty ports acknowledges. In the 'North China 
Daily News' one reads : — 

" 'It has been a surprise to every one that this present 
revolution has been carried out so far with such consid- 
eration for the people at large. It is true, the beginning 
of the movement was disgraced by the massacre of 
Manchus in Wuchang and Hankow, but every care has 
been taken of citizens' lives and property as far as it 
was possible to do so. The black record of murder and 
outrage must be put down to the account of the Im- 
perialists. There is no doubt that the present consid- 
eration for the people is, in a large measure, due to 
the leaven of Christianity which has had its effect on 
the hearts of the Chinese, and for this the missionary 
body must feel a certain amount of gratitude. It shows 
that their work has not been in vain.' 

''This fact does not appear incompatible with the 
insurgents' summary method of dealing with offenders 
against public order. Yet in the following revolutionary 
proclamation a determination to protect Christians is 
clearly apparent: — 

" 'I (the leader of the Revolution) am to dispel the 
Manchu government and to revive the rights of the Han 
people. Let all keep order and not disobey the military 
discipline. The rewards of merit and the punishment 
of crimes are as follows : 

" 'Those who conceal any government officials are to 
be beheaded. 



42 CHINAS NEW DAT 

" 'Those who inflict injuries on foreigners are to 
be beheaded. 

'' 'Those who deal with merchants unfairly are to 
be beheaded. 

'' 'Those who interrupt commerce are to be beheaded. 

" 'Those who give way to slaughter, burning and 
adultery are to be beheaded. 

" 'Those who attempt to close the markets are to be 
beheaded. 

" 'Those who fight against the volunteers are to be 
beheaded. 

" 'Those who supply the troops with foodstuffs will 
be rewarded. 

" 'Those who supply ammunition will be beheaded. 

" 'Those who afford protection to the foreign con- 
cessions will be highly rewarded. 

" 'Those who guard the churches will be highly 
rewarded. 

" 'Those who lead on the people to submission Mall 
be highly rewarded. 

" 'The eighth moon of the 4609th year of the Hwang 
Dynasty.' " ("Northfield Record of Christian Work.") 

"On one occasion, receiving certain foreign ladies in 
the traveling Palace erected for her at Paoting-fu, that 
the Old Buddha alluded directly to the massacres of for- 
eign missionaries which had taken place in that city, 
'with which she had, of course, nothing to do.' No 
doubt by this time, and by force of repetition, Tzu Hsi 
had persuaded herself of her complete innocence ; but, 
however, this may be, she undoubtedly won over most 
of the foreigners with whom she came in contact, by 
the charm and apparent sincerity of her manner." 
(Bland and Backhouse, "China Under the Empress 
Dowager.") 

"Equally valueless, for purposes of historical ac- 
curacy, are most of the accounts and impressions of the 
Empress recorded by those Europeans (especially the 



THE BREAK WITH THE PAST 43 

ladies of the Diplomatic Body and their friends) who 
saw her personality and purposes reflected in the false 
light which beats upon the Dragon Throne on cere- 
monial occasions, or who came under the influence of 
the deliberate artifices and charm of manner which she 
assumed so well. Had the etiquette of her Court and 
people permitted intercourse with European diplomats 
and distinguished visitors of the male sex, she would 
certainly have acquired, and exercised over them also, 
that direct personal influence which emanated from her 
extraordinary vitality and will power, influence such as 
the Western world has learned to associate with the 
names of the Emperor William of Germany and Mr. 
Roosevelt. Restricted as she was to social relations 
with her own sex amongst foreigners, she exerted her- 
self, and never failed, to produce on them an impression 
of womanly grace and gentleness of disposition, which 
qualities we find accordingly praised by nearly all who 
came in contact with her after the return of the Court, 
aye, even by those who had undergone the horrors of 
the siege under the very walls of her Palace. The 
glamour of her mysterious Court, the rarity of the 
visions vouchsafed, the real charm of her manner, and 
the apparently artless bonhomie of her bearing, all 
combined to create in the minds of the European ladies 
who saw her an impression as favourable as it was op- 
posed to every dictate of common sense and experience. " 
(Ibid.) 

''China, the largest, and hitherto the most unchang- 
ing nation on earth, is now in a ferment with the leaven 
of a new life. She is now entering upon a great crisis 
in her history. Like the Jews, they have gone into all 
the earth, speak the languages of the world, and yet 
remain a separate people. The Chinaman can live in 
any climate and take care of himself. Everywhere he 
goes he takes his religion with him. When this mighty 
people are won for Christ, what a power they will be 



44 CHINA' S NE W DA T 

in the world. China is not a dying race, but a strong 
and vigorous people, a nation with a destiny, with a 
constitutional form of government, and with a parlia- 
ment nearing materialization. 

"A question of overwhelming importance is, What 
are Western nations going to do with the millions of 
the Chinese? Or perhaps the question may be asked, 
What are the Chinese going to do with the people of 
the West in coming centuries? To evangelize China 
and treat her justly was never so urgent as now. It is 
not simple duty, it is true wisdom, it is wise warfare. 
There is now an opportunity to show friendship for 
this empire that will make China our friend." (Sir 
Hunter Corbett in ''Students and the Modern Mis- 
sionary Crusade.") 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 

1. What began the awakening of China? 

2. Tell the story of the sending of the New Testament 
to a woman by the women. What had it to do with 
China's awakening? 

3. Tell the story of Kuang Hsii's development. 

4. Why might a Christian people make more progress 
than a non-Christian? What are the causes of progress? 

5. Tell how Kuang Hsii bought and studied Western 
books, and of the reforms he instituted. 

6. Tell something of missionary influence in Chinese 
educational reforms. 

7. Why could Kuang Hsii begin reform which he was 
unable to carry out? What defects had he as a ruler? 

8. Tell what you can of Yuan Shi ki. Was he a 
statesman or a traitor? 

9. Who carried out Kuang Hsii's reforms? What 
new reforms were instituted? Tell something of the 
opium reform; the giving of a constitution; the open- 
ing of national assemblies. 

10. Give the causes of the uprising and demand for a 
republic. Tell something of the progress of China in 
recent years. 



CHAPTER II 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 



One of the chief factors in the renewal and Importance of 
regeneration of Chinese life is the Chinese Ckmese 
woman. Long the victim of repression and ig- o^^an. 
norance, she is still splendidly endowed, of un- 
diminished vigor, and wields an immense influence 
over Chinese society. It is quite possible when 
the defects of Chinese life so far as they affect 
women are pictured that American women gain 
a wrong impression, and have a feeling of 
mingled pity and contempt for those so down- 
trodden. Nothing could be more unfortunate. 
While the conditions surrounding the life of 
Chinese women are far from ideal, and while the 
conception of womanhood presented in Confucian 
thought is doubtless inadequate, yet it is probable 
that no woman of a non-Christian land has had 
greater influence or dignity than the Chinese 
woman. Certainly no woman is to-day more im- 
portant to reach and educate. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to present the Purpose of 
brighter aspects of the life of the Chinese woman Chapter 
and to create a better appreciation of her fine 
qualities, in order to emphasize the importance of 
woman's education, training and better equip- 



46 



CHINA' S NE W DA T 



Necessity of 

Studying 

Conditions. 



Books for 
^X^omen. 



ment in this hour of China's need. Only as we 
enter sympathetically into her life shall we be 
able to appreciate the supreme worth of the op- 
portunity that is before the Church to-day in the 
new accessibility of the Chinese woman. 

''Not one in ten thousand Chinese women can 
read," said one of China's great sinologues, 
some thirty years ago. 

After I had lived in China for a few years I 
began to doubt the accuracy of this statement. 

One with foreign prejudices and predilections 
may associate with an alien people for many 
years, and not know much about special condi- 
tions unless he makes an effort to learn them. 
To illustrate: I had lived in China for six years 
and had never heard a Chinese Mother Goose 
rhyme, but within a year after hearing the first 
one, I had made a collection of more than six 
hundred of these nursery ditties. 

I had been in China eleven years before I saw 
a good Chinese painting, but after finding one, 
and learning to appreciate it, I saw them on 
every hand. 

Soon after learning to read and speak the 
Chinese language, while going about the book 
shops of Liu Li Chang, the great book and 
curio street of Peking, I found a little primer 
called the ''Nu Erh Ching" or Classic for Girls, 
and translated it. As it was in rhyme an attempt was 
made to put it into meter similar to the original. 
The following is a translation of the first verse: — 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 47 

This instruction for mj sisters Primer for 

I have called the Nu Erh Ching; Girls. 

All its precepts jou should practice, 
• All its sentences should sing. 

You should rise from bed as early 
In the morning as the sun. 

Nor retire at evening's closing 
Till jour work is wholly done. 

The primer contains fifty-three stanzas. To "Four Books 
my surprise I then found '^Four Books for for Girls." 
Girls" similar to the ''Four Books" for boys 
that the Chinese have been studying from ten to 
twenty centuries. These "Four Books for Girls" 
opened up a new view of the Chinese woman, 
and a larger, broader hope for the work that our 
Christian women are doing in the Orient. No 
one so far as I could learn had known anything 
about ''Four Books for Girls," up to that time, 
though it was printed in such large editions that 
it could be purchased in two volumes, done up 
in a cloth cover, for the small sum of ten cents. 

Further search revealed other books, such as "Studies for 
"Studies for Women," by Lu Chou, being the Women." 
examples of great women of ancient times, 
"Studies for the Inner Apartments," the "Filial 
Piety Classic for Girls, " which seemed to indicate 
that the Chinese woman had not been entirely 
neglected, but had received enough to make her 
long for more. 

On one occasion when a group of Chinese Testimony of 
ladies were calling at our home I asked them if Chinese 
they had read the "Four Books for Girls," the o™^^" 



48 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

primer for girls, and the other books for women. 
They quoted from the books in order to verify 
their statements. I continued my inquiries, and 
in every instance where a company of women 
from the homes of the middle and better classes 
came to call we found one, and sometimes more, 
who could read. It is a significant fact that not 
only the first book that was ever written in any 
language for the instruction of girls was written 
by the Lady Ts'ao, a Chinese woman contempora- 
neous with the Apostle Paul, but that, when the 
new regime was inaugurated, the first woman's 
daily newspaper that was ever published any- 
where in the world was started and edited by 
Mrs. Chang, a Chinese lady in Peking, with 
Chinese women — and enough of them — as her 
constituency and her readers. It is, however, to 
be noted that the largest daily newspaper in 
Peking has a circulation of only three thousand. 
What Pro- You ask what proportion of the Chinese 

portion can womcn can read. Frankly, I do not know. The 
Read? proportion of men who can read is probably not 

one in ten, the proportion of women is un- 
doubtedly still smaller. I have found those who 
were admitted by my Chinese friends to be equal 
in their learning to a Hanlin, or fourth degree 
graduate, — an LL.D. One of these often came 
to visit the ladies of our mission in 1901 after the 
Boxer trouble. I was introduced to her, and 
gave her every possible opportunity to exhibit 
her learning, by talking to her about Chinese 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 49 

history, philosophy and literature. So long as A Learned 
we kept strictly to topics Chinese she experienced ^^^y- 
no embarrassment, — she was full of learning. I 
presented her with a copy of a translation of 
Montieth's Physical Geography, and she was 
entirely at sea. I asked her what she thought of it. 

''I do not understand it," she confessed. 

*'What, you do not understand it!" I exclaimed 
in surprise. "How is that? Isn't it good 
Chinese?" 

"Oh, yes, the Chinese is all right; and I un- 
derstand the words, but the thought is all new to 
me, and I cannot comprehend it," she explained. 
Her mind was "packed full of knowledge," but 
her reason was undeveloped. 

Two young ladies, the daughters of a chuang intelligent 
yilan^ or fifth degree graduate, were calling on a Girls, 
missionary. We have nothing that corresponds 
to that degree in the West. Only one out of four 
hundred millions of the Chinese could graduate as 
a chuang yilan once in three years. The con- 
versation turned on Chinese poetry. In the 
Chinese biographical encyclopedias several vol- 
umes were always devoted to women, and so the 
missionary said to them, "Do ladies write poetry 
at the present time?" 

"Oh, yes," they answered, "our aunt has Women 
published a volume of poetry, we'll bring you a Poets, 
copy;" and the next time they came they brought 
a volume in which their aunt had written her 
name, — an autograph copy of her poems. 



50 



CHINA' S NE W DA T 



Are Women 
Oppressed? 



Henpecked 
Husbands. 



It is often said that the Chinese woman is an 
oppressed creature, — the slave of her husband, 
who "dares not say that her soul is her own." 
After studying the Chinese books for women, 
and translating some of them into English, 1 
began to doubt the credibility of a universal 
statement of such nature, and this particularly 
after I had run upon certain expressions which 
struck me as peculiar. 

One day I was dining with Dr. Goodrich, the 
author of the best Anglo-Chinese pocket dic- 
tionary. He had helped me in things Chinese, 
and during the conversation I said to him: 
"Have you ever seen the expression Kuei che 
ting tengV^ 

"What does it mean?" he asked. 

"Literally it means to kneel and hold a candle 
on one's head," I explained. 

"Oh, yes, I know what the words mean," he 
continued, "but what does it signify?" 

"Freely translated, it means 'henpecked hus- 
band.' " I added. 

"I fear it isn't Chinese. It has been im- 
ported," he volunteered. "The Chinese do not 
have that genus. I have been in China for thirty 
years, and I think I should have discovered it." 

"Ask your table boy if he ever heard the ex- 
pression." 

"You ask him," he replied. 

So I turned to the table boy and said: "A^/ 
ting chien kuei che ting teng liao^ mei yu ? Have 
you heard the expression Kuei dieting tengV^ 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 51 * 

'^Yes, " he replied with evident embarrass- 
ment, '^I have heard it." 

*'What does it mean?" I asked. 

^'It means 'the hen that crows in the morn- The Crow- 
ing, ' " he replied, quoting an expression em- ing Hen. 
bodied in the following verses, translated from 
the "Classic for Girls," where a ^'wife's vir- 
tues" are enumerated, and allusion is made to 
certain customs. The sentence is even found in 
the Book of History, edited by Confucius no less 
than five hundred years before Christ, an indica- 
tion that the Chinese woman has held her own 
for many centuries; — 

Then a meek and lowly temper 

Is restriction number seven. 
Your relation to your husband 

Is the same as earth to heaven. 
Where the hen announces morning, 

There the home will be destroyed, 
You from lack of woman's virtue 

Neighbor's scorn cannot avoid. 

And again farther on, under the ''reasons for 
certain customs," we read: — 

Then a woman's upper garment 

And her skirt should teach again, 
That though living with her husband 

She is on a different plane. 
She should follow and be humble 

That it ne'er be said by men, 
That the morning there is published 

By the crowing of the hen. 



62 CHINAS NEW DAT 

**But, " said I to the boy, **you do not have 
that kind of men in these days, do you?" 

^'O-h, y-e-s, " he drawled. 

'^For instance," I went on. 

^^P'an Erh in your compound. They say he 
is a candlestick for his wife." 

I recognized the man he mentioned as one 
who stayed at home and took care of the children, 
while his wife went out into service and made a 
living for the family. 

Chinese stories would indicate that there is no 
lack of this genus in China. I do not mean to 
imply that any large proportion of the men in 
China are domineered over by their wives, but 
believe that the Chinese woman is as strong a 
character as her husband. 
General Ma. A story is told of the late General Ma. He 

was calling on one of the older missionaries on 
one occasion. During the conversation he said, 
**Dr. S — , I want to ask you a question. In 
your honorable country is the woman the head of 
the home or is the man the head of the home?" 

"Why General, it is this way. If the man is a 
stronger character than the woman he is the head 
of the home, but if the woman is stronger than 
the man she rules." 

The General pushed back his chair and said 
with a smile, "In my miserable country it is 
exactly the same!" 

The Chinese speaks of his wife as his nei jen 
— his "inside person"; the implication being 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 53 

that her sphere is the home, while that of the "Tke Inside 

husband is outside as a breadwinner. She rules Person. 

in her realm as autocratically as he does in his. 

As soon as a man steps over his threshold, he 

takes a second place. She serves him in the 

house; he serves her outside. The reader will 

allow a good deal of latitude here, as man is 

more muscular than woman, and a bad man is not 

likely to be a good husband anywhere in the 

world. In an inquiry of this kind we must know 

two things: First, what place do the Chinese give 

to woman? Second, are they able to carry out 

their theories of a home? 

Home is woman's realm. In it she is the ac- Home 
credited ruler. She is supposed to prepare her ^^omans 
husband's food, care for his clothing, bear and ^* ™* 
care for the children, call a teacher for her son 
and place him in school, teach her daughter 
fancy work and cooking, and, — 

If from fancy work and cooking 

You can save some precious hours, 
You should spend them in embroidering 

Ornamental leaves and flowers. 

But as a matter of fact in the country and 
among the poor farmer folk the wife is sometimes 
hitched up with the husband and the donkey to 
the plough, the handle of which the son holds. 
The girls and the women often go out in the fields 
in the busy season of planting, hoeing and har- 
vesting and work beside the men, and you will 
rarely find a man who cannot cook. 



54 



CHINA' S NE W DA T 



Treatment of 
AVomen. 



The Lady 
Ts'ao. 



'Social 
CKanges. 



Another question that often arises is, Does a 
Chinese man treat his wife well? I should answer 
in a general way, a good man does, and a cruel 
or domineering man does not. But the whole 
question resolves itself into the relative strength 
of character of the man and his wife. 

It has already been said that the first book that 
was ever written in any language for the instruc- 
tion of girls, was written by a Chinese woman, 
contemporaneous with the Apostle Paul ; and 
some of her teachings were not very different 
from those of the Apostle. Among her striking 
expressions we have: "First others, then your- 
self." This book of the good Lady Ts'ao is the 
first of the ''Four Books for Girls." It was from 
such women as these, such teachings as these, 
that the nineteenth century developed the late 
Dowager Empress, of whom we have spoken in 
another chapter. But for this general character 
of women it would have been impossible for her 
to have taken the position she did. 
. The changes in the social life of Chinese 
women of rank have been even greater than the 
changes in their educational life, described in 
another chapter. Much of this change must ever 
be accredited to the loving interest shown in 
these ladies by Mrs. Conger, the wife of our hon- 
ored American minister. Mrs. Conger tells us 
in her letters: — 



From my entrance into China, on through seven 
years, I worked with a fixed purpose to gain clearer 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 55 

ideas. ... I sought the opportunity for mj first call 
upon Chinese ladies by saying to His Excellency Li 
Hung Chang, that, if agreeable to him and his family, 
I should be pleased to call and pay my respects. . . . 
After the troubles of 1900 Her Majesty issued many 
invitations for audiences, and these invitations were 
accepted. Then followed my tiffin to the court prin- 
cesses and their tiffin in return. This opened the way 
for other princesses and wives of high officials to call, 
receive calls, to entertain and be entertained. 

In some cases arrangements were made by Mrs. 
Headland, who for many years had been physi- 
cian to these princesses. For months this social 
round of luncheons, tiffins and teas was kept up 
between the American ladies and these prin- 
cesses, and Manehu and Chinese ladies of the 
highest official circles. Several of these Chinese 
ladies have adopted their afternoon ^^at home," 
when they see their friends after European 
fashion. 

It was an education to them. On one occa- A Surprise, 
sion when the Dowager Princess K'e was calling 
on one of the missionaries with the princesses of 
her palace, the table had been prepared in the 
most dainty and tasteful way. When the 
servant slid the folding doors, and the hostess in- 
vited them to step out into the dining room and 
have a cup of tea, the Dowager Princess arose, 
and, as she gazed upon the flower-bedecked table, 
she exclaimed, "I have seen such pictures 
through the stereoscope, but I never thought I 
should see them in real life!" 



Together. 



66 CHINAS NEW DAT 

Chinese Fami- There is a general impression among foreigners 
hes Eat \\\2it the Chinese families of the better classes do 

not eat together, — that the women prepare the 
food, the men are served first, and whatever is 
left is given to the women. I doubted this, and 
was often told by Chinese friends of the middle 
classes that it was not true. One young Chinese 
friend who taught the boys in an official family 
assured me that he often ate with the family, the 
father sitting at one end of the table, the mother 
at the other, the boys and the teacher on one side, 
and their wives and sisters on the other. 

My doubts were dispelled when calling on a 
young Chinese gentleman and his wife, both 
grandchildren of viceroys. There was with them 
at the time another grandson of a viceroy, and 
the grandson of a member of the Grand Council. 
During the conversation which was about the 
common customs of our countries and people, I 
said, "I want to ask you a question, and you will 
pardon me for doing so I am sure, for the only 
way we foreigners have of learning about the 
home life of the Chinese is to inquire. There 
is a general impression among foreigners that 
when a Chinese family is at home together, the 
women prepare the food and serve the men, and 
then they eat what is left. Now do such families 
as yours, when no guests are present, father, 
mother and children, all eat at the same table at 
the same time?" 

Both the young man and his wife assured me 
that that was always the custom in their homes. 




Field Women in China 

Woman's Board of Missions 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 57 

*'Then the women do not serve the men first 
and then eat what is left?" I inquired. 

"No," said one of the other young men, with A Chinese 
a twinkle in his eye, "but we men have a joke Joke, 
which is general, that when we entertain our 
friends, and the women prepare the food for us, 
they keep the best little tidbits for themselves." 

Much has been written of the Chinese custom Foot-binding, 
of binding the feet of the girls, and very much 
has been done by the Manchus, who never bind 
their feet, to break up this custom. Whatever 
may be said as to the origin of the custom, and 
there are several stories current among the 
Chinese as to its origin, it has been practiced for 
the most part, because it is a custom, because 
everybody likes to have small feet, and because it 
adds to their beauty. 

One story of its origin is that a princess with 
club feet, bound them to cover up her deformity. 
Another lays the blame at the door of one Yao 
Niang, a favorite concubine of the Emperor. Still 
another says that it started in the effort of a 
crusty husband to keep his wife from gadding. 
This is the reason given in the "Classic for 
Girls," where we find the following stanza: — 

Have you ever learned the reason 

For the binding of jour feet? 
'Tis from fear that 'twill be easy 

To go out upon the street. 
It is not that they are handsome 

When thus like a crooked bow, 
That ten thousand wraps and bindings 

Are thus bound around them so. 



58 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

I am inclined to believe that the author wishes 
to draw the moral here rather than to give the 
underlying reason, for in the next verse, a similar 
moral is drawn from the boring of the ears The 
author says: — 

Have you ever learned the reason 

Why your ears should punctured be? 
'Tis that you may never listen 

To the talk of Chang or Li. 
True the holes were made for earrings 

That your face may be refined, 
But the other better reason 

You should always keep in mind. 

Was there ever a woman in this world who 
bored her ears to remind herself that she was not 
to listen to the idle gossip of the neighbors .f" 
The custom of foot-binding is doubtless a result 
of the universal desire for small feet. That there 
is terrible suffering connected with it is evi- 
denced by their proverb, that ''For every pair of 
bound feet there is a bed full of tears." Happily 
as a result of the influence of the church, the 
girls' schools, the anti-foot-binding society, and 
the reform that is sweeping over the country, 
foot-binding is in disrepute. But women's cus- 
toms die hard, and the Chinese may be expected 
to have a constitution or a republic before they 
have entirely discarded the fashion of foot- 
binding. 

I have referred to the Chinese woman as a 
poet and a scholar; let me now call attention to 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 59 

her in other vocations of life. The brother of Woman in 
the Lady Ts'ao, the author of the book for girls Literature, 
already referred to, was the historiographer of 
the Han dynasty. When he died his sister was 
chosen to complete his history of the former 
dynasty, and Chinese literary men confess with 
pride that it is impossible to distinguish where 
her brother's work ended and hers began. 

Many Chinese women were artists of note, and Woman in 
in a biographical encyclopedia of Chinese artists, Art. 
of the twenty-four volumes, four were devoted to 
the biographies of great Chinese women artists. 

In a painting in my possession, ^^one hundred 
birds are paying their respects to the phenix, " 
the king and queen of birds. Each of the birds 
is almost life size. It was painted by a woman 
more than three hundred years ago, and is one of 
the finest pieces of bird painting ever seen in any 
country. Many women of the present time, in- 
cluding the late Empress Dowager, the Lady 
Miao, her painting teacher, and the Princess Yii 
Lan, are artists of some ability. 

Among the great rulers of China there are Women 
three whose names will be preserved as long as Rulers. 
Chinese history lasts. The first was the Em- 
press Lii Hou, of the Han dynasty, about the be- 
ginning of our era; the second, Wu Tzu Tien, a 
Buddhist nun of the Tang dynasty, about the 
eighth century, who was taken into the palace as 
a concubine, and dominated the empire; and the 
third is the late Empress Dowager. But the 



60 CHINAS NEW DAT 

author of the third of the "Four Books for 
Girls," who was herself the Empress of Yung 
Lo, the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, 
about five hundred years ago, held that the great- 
ness of every emperor who has ruled China 
during her whole history is due to the advice and 
assistance he received from his wife. After 
allowing for the fact that she is trying to impress 
upon the women of the palace and the country 
the importance of being good, we can still see 
the tremendous influence which the Chinese 
women feel that they have in the home. 
Women in Again among the warriors of the world China 

War. furnishes us a Joan of Arc, Chin Mu Lan. We 

are told that when the father of this lady, who 
was a great general, was too old to take his place 
at the head of the army and put down a rebellion 
in Turkestan, and her brothers were too young, 
she dressed herself in men's garb, and for nine 
years led the army to successive victories, all the 
time concealing her sex and making for herself 
an everlasting reputation. When she returned 
to her home, and was summoned into the presence 
of the Emperor, she still remained incognito, 
then took up her domestic role, and remains to 
this day one of the most attractive studies for 
artists. Nor should we forget that during the 
Boxer rebellion of 1900 there was a red lantern 
society composed of women, who took their place 
beside their brothers in their hopeless effort to 
drive out the foreigner, and save their country 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 61 

from being divided up among the nations of 
Europe. 

You know, everybody knows, that the disposi- a Woman's 
tion of woman is alike all over the world, and Will, 
that when she wants anything that belongs to her 
by right, the easiest thing to do is to let her have 
it, or she will get in some other way — her own 
way — what she wants, in spite of the most 
serious opposition, and the wise man in China 
chooses the less of two evils. This is well illus- 
trated by a story told by a friend. 

"While talking with an official about the wor- Worstiping 
ship of idols one day there was a large stone Idols, 
image near by and I said to him, 'You do not 
worship that, do you.f^' " 

"No, I do not worship that. You go with 
me and I can show you the quarry from which 
the stone was taken to make that idol, and the 
chips left by the stonecutters. I can tell you 
how much gold was required to gild it. Why 
should I worship that.^" 

"A few days thereafter, I saw this same 
official, clothed in hat, boots and official garb, 
with candles, incense and cash in hand, making 
his way in a slow and dignified manner to the 
temple. I saw him light his incense, place it in 
the burner and fall upon his knees and knock his 
head on the ground again and again before the idol. 
The next day I met him and told him of my surprise 
at seeing him in the temple worshiping the idol 
which he assured me he did not worship. 



62 CHINAS NEW DAT 

^'He took me by the arm, and said, 'You are 
a sensible man. You have a wife and children 
—and a mother-in-law. If you had a little boy 
who was ill, and it came to a choice between 
worshiping that idol, or having a row with your 
mother-in-law, you would go and worship the 
idol, now wouldn't you?' " 

Those who think that the Chinese woman is 
not a person who is capable of standing beside 
her husband should read the following account 
of a meeting of women held in Canton in 1908: — 

A Great '^^^ meeting, convened in connection with the diffi- 

Meetin^ culty between China and Japan, was a unique one, and 

is responsible to a great extent for the growing strength 
of the boycotting movement. The proceedings were 
conducted in a perfectly orderly manner, and stirring 
addresses were made for four hours. The weather con- 
ditions were wholly adverse ; but notwithstanding the 
drenching rain that fell continuously, fully ten thou- 
sand women came together at the place of meeting. 
For the first time in the history of this great commer- 
cial center, the main thoroughfares were kept open by 
properly appointed police, told off for the duty of reg- 
ulating the trafliic in ordec to facilitate the progress of 
the wives and daughters of its citizens to a meeting in 
which they were to vindicate their claim to be heard in 
indignant protest against national injustice and wrong. 
Leaving out of account the merits of the question at 
issue, we say advisedly that there never was a more 
significant function in its bearing on the future of a 
nation than the women's mass meeting in Canton. 

The new life that is now stirring the people affects 

^"^ * ^' women as well as men. A writer in the Hong Kong 

Journal says: ''Not the most optimistic or enthusiastic 

revolutionary, who from the viewpoint of twenty years 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 63 

ago looked forward to the changes that then seemed 
impending, would have dared to prophesy an overturn- 
ing and recasting so complete as that which now meets 
the gaze in certain aspects of social and political life 
in China. Few things have been more rapid or more 
startling than the emancipation of women, and the 
acquiescence of officials and other responsible leaders 
among the people in the position of women as a leading 
factor in public life. The Orientalized woman in the 
chief centers of intellectual activity is a creature of the 
past. She is becoming every year more Occidental in 
respect to the position claimed by her, as a figure in 
the new world, where she is ultimately to achieve vic- 
tory in every conflict for the rights of her sex in the 
advanced and progressive commonwealth. National 
spirit in its most potent forms, working for good or 
for evil, is raised to the highest plane of effectiveness 
when it dominates womanhood." 

Mrs. Chauncey Goodrich of Peking describes 
an interesting meeting of women held in the 
capital in January, 1911: — 

Two ladies, Mrs. Feng and Mrs. Kung, both wives of Women and 
high officials, the former a widow and head of a gov- the Opium 
ernment kindergarten and preparatory school, were the Question. 
leaders of the movement. When they heard that the 
Christian people of England were anxious that no more 
opium should be imported into China, they decided to 
call a meeting of Chinese women who would express 
the sentiment of the Chinese people. These two ladies 
wrote letters inviting the people to come. Ten thou- 
sand of these were published and scattered abroad. The 
preparations were extensive. ' The meeting was held in 
an official building next door to that of Prince Shun, 
brother of the Regent. Eight hundred women were 
present, most of them wives and daughters of officials 



64 



CHINA' S NE W DAT 



The Bruised 
Women, to 
tKe Sheltered 
"Women. 



The Real 
Place of 
Women. 



or of the better classes. Sheets of paper on small 
boards were prepared on which the ladies were asked 
to write their names. Anti-opium songs had been 
written to the tunes of the kindergarten, which the 
children sang. Mrs. Feng, in a touching address de- 
scribing the horrors of the ravages of opium, with 
tears streaming down her cheeks, reminded the women 
again and again, that the ''Christians of England are 
on our side." Christian girls from the Woman's Col- 
lege sang several songs, and played selections on the 
piano. Fires were all about the room in brass braziers, 
Chinese refreshments were served in a side room, while 
a special room was prepared with foreign furniture and 
foreign refreshments for the English and American 
guests. Most of these ladies signed their names, and 
within six weeks' time thej had secured the signatures 
of 3,512 women and girls. 

Now comes the most touching part. After the detni- 
7no7ides had heard of the movement they wrote an appeal 
asking that their names be sent — not in the same list, — 
they could not ask for that, but in a separate list, say- 
ing that most of them had been sold into this life of 
shame by opium smoking fathers or brothers or hus- 
bands, saying also: "We are in a shoreless sea. There 
is no possibility of helping us, but it may save others 
from a similar fate. There are those who think that 
we are flippant and enjoy this life. They do not know 
how often we must smile upon guests we despise. We 
beat our breasts and cry aloud, but there is no help for 
us. We feared to write this lest it would soil your 
eyes." Thirty-three names were on this list, one of 
whom, the promoter, was said to be the daughter of a 
man who was educated abroad. 

Now let not my readers quote any sentence, or 
combination of sentences, of that which I have 
written, and pretend that this describes the actual 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 65 

position and lot of the Chinese woman. It does 
not. It is theoretically her position according to 
Chinese ideals. *'She should follow and be 
humble." '' She is as earth," to receive; ^'her 
husband is as heaven," to give. She may not 
perform the sacrifices, she may not worship her 
ancestors, — indeed she has no ancestors to wor- 
ship. When she marries, she becomes a part of 
her husband's family, and severs every tie that 
bound her to her own. Her parents become dead 
to her — unless her husband's family overdo the 
bad treatment, when there may be a village dis- 
turbance. But that is simply by the way. 

Now what really happens in a Chinese home.'* ^, tH - 
I am not going to take exceptional and awful pgng \^ ^ 
cases, but simply give you facts as I found them Home? 
in this investigation. I have been confining my- 
self to the middle and upper classes for the most 
part, because, if the condition of this small and 
favored portion of the community is undesirable, 
what must be the condition of the woman in the 
mud hut and the country hovel! It would be 
impossible to describe it in such a way as to 
enable you to understand it, if you have never 
visited an Oriental country. The poverty and 
dirt in our own great cities approximate that of 
these poor people in the Orient, except that our 
people can go out upon clean streets and clean 
parks and see the possibilities of life, but these 
in China cannot. There is absolutely no hope for 
them until there are social, political, economic, 



6Q CHINAS NEW DA2 

educational and religious upheavals in China. 
Some of these changes are coming for the men, 
and the new education (as we shall show in 
another chapter) will bring about some changes 
for some women. Will it for these? What will 
you do to help ? 
Conditions in Perhaps the worst of all domestic conditions in 
the Home. China are poverty, the inability of the woman to 
go out into service of any kind and help herself, 
and concubinage. Shut up in the common fam- 
ily home, in which live several families and as 
many generations, if she is poor, she has little to 
do; for she has nothing to work with, no separate 
home of her own to keep clean and neat, no 
; clothes to give her an appearance of respectability ; 

while on the other hand she has other women to 
quarrel or gossip with her, with constant com- 
plaints and jealousies. Congenial employment 
which would bring her some income of her own 
is one of her real needs. 
Concubinage. But the greatest of all defects in Chinese social 
life is concubinage, with its attendant evils. 
While the law recognizes but one legal wife, law 
and immemorial custom have permitted the pres- 
ence of the concubine, ''or little wife," in the 
home. Theoretically the wife gives her husband 
a concubine, in reality she is obliged to accept with 
what grace she can the concubine whom her hus- 
band brings into the home. When one considers 
that in one household are sheltered grandfather 
and grandmother, sons and sons' wives, children. 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 67 

concubines and slave girls, it is not difficult to 
understand the unhappiness which often exists. 

An evil akin to that of the concubine, but Tte Slave 
even more pitiable, is that of the slavery of girls. Girl. 
A father has the right to sell his daughter into 
domestic slavery or for evil purposes. Often 
under the pressure of the terrible poverty which 
always threatens the Chinese working man, or to 
relieve debt or to get money for opium, babies, 
children or young girls are thus sold. The slave 
girl is wholly at the mercy of her mistress if she 
be a household servant, or her master if she be 
sold for gain. Many pitiable stories might be 
told of the sufferings of these helpless creatures. 

There was a little girl brought one day to our a Pathetic 
woman's hospital. The men who brought her Case, 
had bought her as a child. The doctors, after 
examining her, found her in a pitiable plight, 
and they threatened the men with prosecution. 
The men became frightened and wanted to take 
her away, when the doctors and the ladies of the 
Women's Society offered to buy her. As, in her 
present condition, she was of no further use to 
them, and would be only a source of expense or 
embarrassment, they sold her for a few dollars. 
Themissionariestook her intothehospital and by at- 
tention and treatment they restored her to a normal 
condition of health. She was a pretty girl, and 
a good girl, and they made her an assistant or 
helper in the hospital. The brother of one of the 
mission cooks saw her later, was attracted by her 



68 CHINAS NEW DAT 

appearance, and asked for her. They explained 
her whole history to both him and his brother, 
and assured him that if he took her and then did 
not treat her well that they would report him to 
the official. Still he wanted her and they finally 
married her to him. 

A Baty Girl. Not long thereafter a baby girl was left at the 
hospital gate. Naturally they took it in hoping 
that they might save its life, and find a home for 
it. When this couple heard of it they asked for 
the baby. It was given to them, and one of the 
pictures that I shall never forget as long as I 
live, is that of this foster-father, stalkingup the aisle 
of the church on Sunday morning with the little 

"Our Baby." gii'l inhisarms, — ^^ tsa men ti baby — ourbaby, "as 
they called it, and as everyone finally called it, his 
little wife following demurely after. He found 
her a seat, gave her the baby, then found a seat 
for himself across the aisle. If the child cried 
during the service, he would take her out until 
she became quiet and then return her to her 
mother. It was pathetic in its beauty. I wish 
that I had been the one who furnished the money 
to save the girl! She is only one of tens of 
thousands of such slave girls who are unwillingly 
sold to such a life. 

A Noble The granddaughter of the Grand Secretary was 

Cbaracter. a constant visitor at our home. Often have I 
conversed with her on art, on literature and on 
religion. She was very much interested in 
Christianity, so much so that after Mrs. Head- 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 69 

land had given her books to read, she requested 
that one of the girls from the school should be 
allowed to come and talk with her about the 
gospel. After the Boxer trouble she told Mrs. 
Headland the following story: — 

"My head servant was out on the street one A Girl for 
day and met a man with a little girl, his $2.50. 
daughter, whom he offered for sale, that he might 
use the price of her to buy opium. Her mother ' 
was dead and my servant bought her for two 
dollars and a half. 

'^I took her as a little slave girl and she proved 
to be very faithful, but when the feast day came 
and I told her to worship the idols, she replied, "I do not 
' Wo pu pal chia shen^ I do not worship the Worship 
idols.' ^'^°^'-" 

'' 'But, you will grow up to be a bad woman, 
if you do not worship the idols,' I urged. 

" 'I do not worship the idols, I just worship 
Jesus,' she insisted, and as she was such a good 
little girl, a Roman Catholic Christian, I did not 
compel her to worship the idols. 

"Years passed by and the Boxer trouble came. 
The Boxers issued a proclamation that all persons 
having Christians in their homes, or knowing of 
their whereabouts, must turn them over to the 
Boxers. 

"The slave girl came to me and begged 
that she be not given up, and I decided to move 
to my grandfather's, thinking that they would 
not dare to molest a person in as high position as 



70 CHINAS NEW DAT 

a Grand Secretary. My grandmother came to me 
and ordered me to give up the little girl. The 
child begged in such a pathetic way that I de- 
cided not to do so, and for a time all was quiet. 

*'By and by they issued another proclamation, 
saying that they proposed to search every home 
in Peking, and wherever they found a Christian 
harbored, they would treat all the inmates as 
though they were Christians. 
Saved by ''Again my grandmother came to us and 

Begging. ordered me to give her up, saying that she would 

not allow her to remain in her home. Again 
the little girl pleaded, and I finally sent out on 
the street and bought two beggars' garbs, decid- 
ing to dress ourselves in them and beg our way 
to Paoting-fu where my uncle would protect us." 

''But," said Mrs. Headland, "you could not 
look like a beggar with your fair white hands 
and face, and your smooth black hair." 

"Oh, we stained our hands, arms and face and 
we brought in dust from the street and rubbed it 
in our hair until we looked like beggars." 

"But your little feet," exclaimed Mrs. Head- 
land, for they were not more than three inches 
long and she never walked anywhere except lean- 
ing on the arm of a servant, and never went out 
on the street except in a cart or a chair. 

" There was nothing for us to do but to walk, " 
she answered, "and after nightfall we went out 
on the street and started to beg our way to Pao- 
ting-fu, ninety miles away. Next morning the 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 71 

sun rose burning hot, for it was July. There 
were drenching showers of rain, and we had no 
place to sleep at night but in the open gateways 
by the roadside as we passed along, and when 
we met the first company of Boxers, my knees 
knocked together for fear they would discover a 
cross on the little girl's head." 

''But you did not really think they could see a 
cross where you could not?" 

''When we started I did. But after we had 
passed two companies of Boxers, I did not be- 
lieve they could. For four days we waded 
through mud and rain and burning heat, and then 
arrived at Paoting-fu. But when we reached my 
uncle's place, we did not dare go in lest the 
people might circulate the report that he was 
harboring Christians." 

"What did you do?" 

"We waited until I saw an old servant whom 1 
recognized, and then I followed him and in a 
whining tone as though begging, I told him my 
story and asked him to open the side gate after 
nightfall and let us in. He did so, and we went 
into my uncle's home. They were both waiting 
for us and when they saw us they burst into tears. 
The servants gave us a bath, but when they un- 
bound my feet they had blistered and festered, and 
for weeks they were covered with running sores 
so that I could not walk but was confined to the 
brick bed." 

She stopped, and Mrs. Headland put her arms 



72 CHINAS NEW DAT 

around her in sympathy, as she exclaimed, 
''What a hard thing to do!" 

''Yes, it was hard," she answered, "but I 
saved the little girl." 

This incident ought to give us some idea of the 
character of the Chinese woman. She is worth 
working for and saving. And the faithfulness of 
the little slave girl ought to be some indication 
as to what kind of a nation she would help to 
make if they were a Christian people. 
Schools Side Wherever we establish a Christian college in 

by Side. the non-Christian world, it is the custom of the 

various women's societies to establish a girls' 
school in close proximity. This is for the reason 
that the individual is not the unit of the national 
life. The family is the unit. Marry a good 
man to a bad woman and you have spoiled the 
unit. Conversely marry a good woman to a bad 
man and you have spoiled the unit. But marry 
a good Christian woman to a good Christian man 
and you start a home which is a center of light 
to any neighborhood. 

Near to the North China College of the Amer- 
ican Board Mission is the Women's College. 
The same is true of the Presbyterian Mission 
in Peking, the London Mission, the English 
Church Mission, while the Peking University, 
the Nanking University, the Foochow University, 
the Anglo-Chinese College of Shanghai, St. 
John's University — indeed all the leading schools, 
colleges, universities and union educational 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 73 

schemes for boys, have girls' schools in their 
vicinity. This is not done chiefly for the pur- 
pose of bringing the young people together, but 
for the purpose of giving them an education, yet 
the other is no doubt a part of the scheme. 

One of these young students, Mark by name, was A Noble 
married the day he graduated, to Sarah, the Woman, 
youngest daughter of Old Mother Wang. Now 
Sarah was fond of a fine silk gown as any woman. 
She was anxious to have a good comfortable 
home. If her husband entered business he could 
begin with a salary of from twenty-five to fifty 
dollars a month; while if he entered the church 
as a preacher he would receive but five dollars a 
month with no hope at that time of ever getting 
more than ten. The day Mark graduated they 
were married. That evening Sarah said to him, 
"Mark, what are you going to do?" 

'^Oh, I do not know. What do you think?" 

''I have heard you speak in the church here. 
God has called you to preach." 

"Yes, but what are we going to live on?" that 
is the eternal interrogation when a man takes 
upon himself the responsibility and the support 
of a home. 

"Mark, if God calls you to preach, God will 
take care of us," said Sarah, and they knelt 
together and prayed. 

The next morning Mark went to the missionary 
who had helped him through college and said, 
"I will preach the gospel." 



74 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



An Appeal. 



The Supreme 
Opportunity. 



The Doors 
Opened. 



And now, women, I appeal to you. I have 
not given you a dismal view of Chinese woman- 
hood. But if I have failed to show you her 
helplessness under her present conditions, I have 
not succeeded in painting the picture I have un- 
dertaken. I have tried to show you a noble 
woman shut up in a home, with daughters, 
daughters-in-law, concubines, servants and slave 
girls; in which there is all the human tendency 
to selfishness, jealousy, ambition, gossip — why 
some of you find it hard to live peaceably with a 
cook and a maid, — what of the Chinese woman.? 

The supreme opportunity has now come for 
girls' schools and their great work. It is not 
that many or great schools have been opened, 
but that with small equipment your workers have 
done tremendous things. You began a few years 
ago by having to pay girls to get them in school. 
Now all prejudice is gone; men and women alike 
want their daughters educated. Men want educated 
wives. There are parts of China in which the 
officials in high positions publicly assert that they 
will not recommend a young man for official posi- 
tion unless he have an educated wife! Are you 
awake to the opportunity that is now open to you } 
You have been praying for years that the doors 
may be opened. Did you expect your prayers to 
be answered, or were you only repeating a for- 
mula. f* Your missionaries, by their influence with 
a Chinese woman, with your prayers as a motive 
force, have contributed to the opeiiing of the 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 75 

doors. Standing in the doorways of a hundred 
millions of hovels, homes and palaces, there are 
as many women beckoning you to come and show 
them what a home should be, what motherhood 
may be, what home training can do, toward the 
making of a life and the shaping of a nation. 
You are the only ones who can do it, for men are 
shut out of the home life of the women. Will 
you go? 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

''Chinese history differs from that of other people 
with which Occidentals are familiar in the co-operation 
of five factors nowhere else found in combination, 
namely : comparative isolation ; extended duration ; ex- 
tremely gradual progression ; superiority to environ- 
ment, and the overwhelming influence of resident forces 
as compared with the relatively unimportant effect of 
those from without." (Arthur H. Smith in ''China 
and America To-day," p. 28.) 

"It is probably safe to say that no country not 
Christian can show in its legislation more care in 
guarding the sacredness of family ties, defending the 
purity of the weaker sex, and providing for the main- 
tenance of widows." (Dr. .Wells Williams in "Chinese 
Recorder," Jan. -Feb., 1880.) 

"It was January 1, 1873, when the Misses Hoag and 
Howe, representatives of the Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
essayed to open the school in question (Kiu Kiang). 
They had secured a (Chinese) teacher; he in turn . . . 
secured two little girls as pupils. They ran away be- 
fore night, but raised a fair sized din for nearly the 
whole forenoon. . . . The accumulated wisdom of the 



76 CHINAS NEW DAT 

centuries in this section of China reiterated that book 
learning would incapacitate girls in the line of womanly 
accomplishments, such as combing the hair and binding 
the feet." (Margaret Burton in "The Education of 
Women in China, "p. 44.) 

"The opportunities of education, in the sense in 
which education is imparted by means of books and 
schools, were first brought to the women of China by 
the Christian missionaries." ("Education of Women 
in China," p. 34.) 

"Whatever theories her literature might contain, 
China as a whole saw no value in woman's education 
and was strongly suspicious that its effect on women 
would be undesirable." (Ibid, p. 28.) 

"It is a law of nature that woman should be kept 
under the control of man and not allowed any will of 
her own. In the other world the condition of affairs is 
exactly the same, for the same laws govern there as 
here." (Confucius.) 

"Woman is a mindless, soulless creature." (Con- 
fucius. ) 

"Of all women of the Orient I love the Chinese 
women best ; they have so much character, and are so 
womanly." (Isabella Bird Bishop.) 

"Morally, they (the women) are China's better half 
— modest, graceful and attractive." (Dr. W. A. P. 
Martin.) 

"They (the women) have been the great force which 
has preserved the country. I say this without fear of 
contradiction." (Dr. Swanson, of Amoy. ) 

"The modesty, strength and reserve of the Chinese 
woman have impressed us profoundly in all parts of the 
country." (Report of Deputation of The American 
Board.) 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 77 

Note. — The preceding quotations are from Miss Bur- 
ton's book, ''Education of Women in China," a mine 
of treasure for further material on this chapter. 

"In matters educational in China, it is of special 
significance to note that schemes of magnitude, which 
hold in them possibilities such as the most san- 
guine never contemplated until within the past decade, 
are now come to be regarded as everyday events within 
the sphere of the commonplace. Thus we find notice 
of a memorial to the throne from the Board of Educa- 
tion, asking that f70,000 be devoted to found in the 
capital a normal school for the training of women 
teachers, the school to be maintained by an annual 
grant from the government of $40,000. The feature of 
this memorial which makes it essentially of the new 
time is the proposal to spend year by year so considera- 
ble a sum in providing for female education. 

''One recalls the significant statement of Viceroy 
Yuan Shi ki, shortly before his retirement from office : 
'The most important thing in China just now is that 
the women be educated.' Increasing numbers of 
Chinese women are unbinding their feet, and the move- 
ment has the support of the government and of many 
daily papers." ("China Mail.") 

"The Chinese family needs a new spirit which shall 
lay stress on the duties of superiors to inferiors, on the 
worth of each individual soul in the sight of a loving 
Father, on the sense of personal responsibility to him 
and not to custom. It needs to learn that a man should 
forsake his father and his mother, and cleave to his 
wife — to love her as his own flesh. It needs to learn 
that 'dignity is not one of the fruits of the spirit.' It 
needs to experience the liberty wherewith Christ has set 
us free from the bondage of the past." (Arthur H. 
Smith, in the "Uplift of China," p. 78.) 

"Bishop Bashford writes: 'You will be surprised to 
know that ninety per cent of our members in West 



78 CHINAS NE W DAT 

China are adult men, and only ten per cent are women 
and children. I found the various chapels where I 
preached full of men, with from two or three up to 
eight or ten women in the inner court. I often asked 
these men where their wives and children were, and told 
them they could have no true church unless their wives 
and children were also converted and brought into 
Christian fellowship. They answered me that their 
women had unbound their feet, but that they had no 
foreign women to teach them the Jesus doctrine. I 
urged them to have family prayers, but with from two 
to ten families often living together, and with the 
older people having complete control, it is almost im- 
possible for the men, ignorant as they are, to establish 
family prayers, or to teach their wives and children at 
home.' 

''It is cause for rejoicing that two new women workers 
are now on their way to this most promising field." 
(Methodist Leaflet.) 

^'Confucius assigns to woman a position of great 
inferiority. Man is the representative of heaven, and 
is supreme over all things. Woman yields obedience 
to the instructions of man, and helps to carry out his 
principles. On this account she can determine nothing 
of herself, and is subject to the rule of the three obedi- 
ences : when young, she must obey her father and elder 
brother; when married, she must obey her husband; 
when her husband is dead, she must obey her son. 
She may not think of marrying a second time. No in- 
structions or orders must issue from the harem. 
Woman's business is simply the preparation and sup- 
plying of wine and food. Beyond the threshold of her 
apartments she should not be known for evil or for 
good. She may not cross the boundaries of the state 
to accompany a funeral. She may take no step on her 
own motion, and may come to no conclusion on her 
own deliberation." (Methodist Leaflet.) 

''Until last year I cared very little for the work of 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 79 

Christ. I preached the gospel with my lips, but my 
heart was not in earnest. It is all different now! Last 
summer I lost my only son. My heart was broken, 
rebellious, until one day it came to me that many, many 
of my friends were praying for me. I went to church, 
and heard the preacher say that the religion of Jesus 
Christ is the most precious thing in all the world. Oh, 
that word came with power to me, Lady Teacher! He 
seemed to put a beautiful bud into my heart, and it 
has been unfolding and expanding ever since into a 
pure, white flower. I knew that my past life had all 
been a seeking for the things of this life; but at that 
time, Lady Teacher, I felt my fleshly heart slipping 
away ; and the life of God flooding my soul ; and since 
then I have wanted nothing else, sought nothing else, 
but to serve my blessed Master and be used of him." 
(A Chinese Christian Woman in Congregational Board 
Leaflet.) 

'' 'What sewing have you been doing lately.'" I asked, 
after the ordinary greetings had been exchanged. This 
is a staple and ever-interesting topic of conversation 
among the women folk of our hard-working China. 

" 'Not much,' said the oldest old lady, knocking the 
ashes out of her pipe ; 'and of course, as the dragon 
lifts his head to-day, no one can touch a needle.' So 
that was why they were all idle! But I still felt inquisi- 
tive. I had heard of the mythical Dragon King, who 
lives in his great palaces under the sea, and makes the 
earth quake with a stir, and interferes with the digging 
of mines and other useful modern deeds, which he 
hates. Also I knew that the lifting of his head meant 
spring; but the needle.'* I made inquiries. 

'' 'To-day he lifts his head,' they said again simply; 
'if we used a needle, we might stick it into his eye, 
without knowing it! So no one dares sew to-day, of 
course.' " (Alice Brown in "Life and Light.") 



80 CHINA'S NEW DAT 



ONE OUT OF FIVE 

"One fifth of all the women of the world are found in 
the homes of China. One baby girl out of every five is 
cradled in a Chinese mother's arms unwelcomed and 
unloved, unless by that poor mother's heart. One little 
maiden out of every five grows up in ignorance and 
neglect, drudging in the daily toil of some poor Chinese 
family, or crying over the pain of her crippled feet in 
the seclusion of a wealthier home. Among all the 
youthful brides, who day by day pass from the shelter 
of their childhood's home, one out of every five goes 
weeping in China to the tyranny of the mother-in-law 
she dreads, and the indifference of a husband she has 
never seen. Of all the wives and mothers in the world, 
one out of every five turns in her longing to a gilded 
goddess of mercy in some Chinese temple, counting her 
beads and murmuring her meaningless prayer. Of all 
the women who weep, one out of every five weeps alone, 
uncomforted, in China. Out of every five who lie upon 
beds of pain, one is wholly at the mercy of Chinese 
ignorance and superstition. One out of every five, at 
the close of earthly life, passes into the shadow and 
terror that surround a Chinese grave, never having 
heard of Him who alone can rob death of its sting. 
One fifth of all the women are waiting, waiting in 
China, for the Saviour who so long has waited for 
them. What a burden of responsibility does this lay 
upon us — the women of Christendom!" (Mrs. F. 
Howard Taylor.) 

"Were the women only converted we believe that idol- 
atry would soon cease out of the land." (William 
Muirhead. ) 

"Nearly one half of the women of the world belong 
to the two great empires of China and India. . . . The 
women conserve the ancient religions and superstitions 
of their country ; and what can a man do when the 
women of the household are against him?" (Isabelle 
Williamson.) 




A Chinese Bride 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 81 

INFANTICIDE 

"That the custom, although often practiced in secret, 
prevails in China cannot be doubted. The united testi« 
monj of those who have had ample opportunities to 
know the facts pres(;nts a body of evidence which is 
irresistibly strong, although the custom is confined 
almost exclusively to the destruction of girls, unless in 
case of deformed or weakly infants. It is more preva- 
lent in Central and Southern China, and is compara- 
tively rare in the north. It is said that poverty and the 
desire to be free from the burden of caring for girls are 
the chief causes of its prevalence. The spirit which 
seems to reign in the hearts of Chinese mothers is illus- 
trated by a conversation which Miss Fielde reports in 
'A Corner of Cathay.' A pagan Chinese woman, dis- 
coursing upon the subject of daughters, remarked, 'A 
daughter is a troublesome and expensive thing anyway. 
Not only has she to be fed, but there is all the trouble 
of binding her feet, and of getting her betrothed, and of 
making up her wedding garments ; and even after she is 
married off she must have presents made to her when 
she has children. Really, it is no wonder that so many 
baby girls are slain at their birth!' While the difficulty 
of obtaining acccurate data is recognized by all, and 
also the fact that statements which apply to certain 
sections of the vast empire are not representative of the 
true status in other parts, yet the prevalence of infanti- 
cide to a frightful extent is beyond question." (James 
S. Dennis, "Christian Missions and Social Progress," 
Vol. I, p. 128.) 

"As to whether Chinese married life is happy or not, 
there is this to be said, that neither Chinese men nor 
women know any other kind of married life. One 
fruitful source of trouble is the polygamy allowed by 
custom ; for quarrels and fights, jealousies and envy, 
bickerings and disputes, are more or less the inheritance 



82 CHINAS NE W DAT 

of the many-wived household ; and lawsuits for property 
left by the much-married Chinaman are rendered more 
complicated by the different interests of the four, five 
or six women who all own the deceased as their late 
husband." (Dyer Ball, "Things Chinese.") 

''The high-spirited disposition of the women of Lung 
Kong is shown in the organization of an anti-matrimo- 
nial league, in which the fair damsels of this fortunate 
district bind themselves under solemn pledges never to 
marry. Such a course is so contrary to the whole his- 
tory and spirit of Chinese institutions and so daring a 
challenge to the practices of ages, that one cannot but 
admire the spirit of independence and courage from 
which it springs. The existence of the Amazonian 
league has long been known, but as to its rules and the 
number of its members no definite infornnation has 
come to hand. It is composed of young widows and 
marriageable girls. Dark hints are given as to the 
methods used to escape matrimony. The sudden demise 
of betrothed husbands, or the abrupt ending of the 
newly-married husband's career suggest unlawful means 
for dissolving the bonds. When they submit to mar- 
riage they still maintain their powers of will. One of 
their demands being that the husband must go to the 
wife's home to live, or else live without her company." 
(Ibid.) 

This Chinese poem may appeal to the woman of the 
East but is quite contrary to the spirit of the American 
housekeeper. 

Humanity 
Oh, spare the busy morning fly ! 
■ Spare the mosquitoes of the night! 
And if their wicked trade they ply 
Let a partition stop their flight. 
Their span is brief from birth to death ; 

Like you they bite their little day; 

And then with autumn's earliest breath, 

Like you too they are swept away. 

—Han Tu. 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 83 

''In China female chastity is severely guarded, and 
there is no licensed immorality; yet a state of things 
which is frankly acknowledged in Japan is simply an 
open secret among the Chinese. Society regards it 
with a sly frown, the government prohibits and pro- 
fesses to discipline it; yet vice festers in every city of 
China and presents some shamefully loathsome aspects. 
The traffic in young girls, especially those who may be 
afflicted with blindness, is the usual method of supplying 
brothels with their inmates. The infamous trade of 
the 'pocket-mother' and her colonies of native slave 
girls, and its relation to the opium habit in the Straits 
Settlements and China, have been recently brought 
vividly to the attention of the British public by Mrs. 
Andrew and Dr. Kate Bushnell. In the everyday con- 
versation of the Chinese, especially of the poorer 
classes, expressions so exceptionally vile that they can- 
not be hinted at are only too well known. . 'An English 
oath is a winged bullet; Chinese abuse is a ball of filth,' 
says the author of 'Chinese Characteristics.' The 
notorious books and placards of Human are an indica- 
tion of the interior furnishing of the Chinese imagina- 
tion." (James S. Dennis, "Christian Missions and 
Social Progress," Vol. I, p. 88.) 

"The Rev. J. Macgowan (L. M. S.), of Amoy, speaks 
of the 'new sentiment that permeates every Christian 
household. The result is seen in the gradual elevation 
of woman, and the different position she holds from that 
which obtained when I first arrived in China. Certain 
rights are secured to her that heathen women dare not 
claim. Parents may not marry their daughter to a 
heathen, unless it is impossible to get a Christian, nor 
to any man of known bad character. They may not 
dispose of her to be a concubine or second wife, neither 
can the}' compel her to be betrothed to one to whom 
she herself, for moral reasons, has an antipathy. If 



84 CHINAS NEW DAT 

thej do not regard the welfare of their girls in these 
matters, the church steps in and utters its voice in their 
behalf. Again, a man may not illtreat his wife, or, 
except for one offence, divorce her, or take another 
wife, unless he is prepared to come under the discipline 
of the church. Hitherto woman has had no champion 
to stand bj in her defence. Now she has, and one that 
is prepared to right every wrong in her social life.' " 
(James S. Dennis, "Christian Missions and Social 
Progress," Vol. II, p. 195.) 

"In the 'Statement of the Nature, Work, and Aims of 
Protestant Missions in China,' prepared for presenta- 
tion to the Emperor, it is declared that 'Christians 
marry but one wife,' and a brief exposition of the dis- 
tinctively biblical features of the marriage relation is 
given. The example of the happy home life of converts 
is already a power in the land. That progress is neces- 
sarily slow can be readily explained, but as Christianity 
obtains sway over the conscience, and the ideals of a 
higher civilization win the respect of that conservative 
people we shall find the Christian code more and more 
widely recognized and observed." (James S. Dennis, 
"Christian Missions and Social Progress," Vol. II, 
p. 222.) 

" She was quietly but richly dressed, with beautiful 
hair ornaments, rings and bracelets of massive gold, 
set with pearls. In the rooms was the most cunningly 
carved blackwood furniture, inlaid with mother-of- 
pearl, all about were gorgeous embroidered hangings 
and priceless porcelains. Everywhere the evidences of 
wealth, and yet there was an undefined something 
which disturbed one, and the sadness of our hostess' 
face fairly haunted one's thoughts. What was it and 
why? She had a son and daughter, innumerable serv- 
ants, all the comforts and luxuries which money could 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 85 

supply. At this point there came into the reception 
room three young women accompanied bj women 
servants. 'My younger sisters,' said Mrs. Sung. 
Here was the explanation, for these were the 'chieh' 
concubines introduced into the family with scant cere- 
mony, bringing in their train worry and sorrow for the 
*chi' — wife. There is only one wife. She who rides to 
her unknown bridegroom and home, in the gay red 
chair, and who is installed in her new home with cere- 
monies more or less elaborate. In spite of the fact 
that the woman of China has perhaps as high a legal, 
social and domestic position as is possible outside of 
Christian culture and without the restraints of Chris- 
tianity, yet she labors under severe disabilities, and 
her life is far from ideal, she herself having no ideals. 

"Polygamy with its inevitable train of evils is tolera- 
ted by Confucianism. The casual observer exchanging 
visits and friendly calls in the homes of the rich and 
well to do sees on every hand material comfort, often 
lavish expenditure, and outwardly pleasant and friendly 
relations between the women. Let there be, however, 
a more intimate relation established, and there comes 
to one's knowledge the undercurrent of unhappiness, 
wrangling and envy on every hand, constant quarrels to 
be settled. It is the exception rather than the rule to 
find peace and harmony. 'Aiyah!' cried the Sung 
children one day coming in with their books for school. 
'We are glad to be away to-day. Such a quarrel and 
row, our mother will have her hands full trying to settle 
it all, and be ill for days.' With a wise wag of his 
head, the boy said, 'Nothing like this for me when I 
have a house. I want peace and quiet. ' Sad, troubled 
little woman, her face rises before one even after the 
lapse of years. 

"And what of her humbler sister, whose lot is not 
mitigated by material comfort? The well to do of any 
race form but a small proportion of the population; 



86 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

how about the rank and file — the shopkeeper's wife, 
the women, untold hundreds of them, whose lives are 
spent upon boats, she whose life in the country on the 
farm is one of endless toil and often infinite privation? 
From her cradle (if she has one) to her grave she is 
at a distinct disadvantage — her inferiority to man pre- 
supposed and taught. Woman is spoken of as moulded 
of faults, credited with evil, looked upon with lofty 
disdain ; for her, education though not forbidden is 
practically unknown (even in this day of reforms). 
Frorn the hardships and evils of her position she seeks 
refuge in suicide, against which there is neither teaching 
nor remedy in Confucianism. She doggedly accepts 
her fate, not feeling that any injustice is done her hy 
being deprived of the right of choosing her partner for 
life, her horizon confined to the domestic circle. Often 
the removal from parents' to husband's home makes 
little change. More frequently a terrible one, for the 
power accorded to a husband is often used with great 
tyranny and cruelty ; and with her husband a hard task 
master, her mother-in-law unsympathetic, demanding 
of her alike the submission of a child and labor of a 
slave, is it any wonder that many a young wife, being 
denied a son, whose birth would give her a better and 
more honored position and justify her own, seeks relief 
through the suicide's path! In the stagnation of super- 
stition and ignorance, there is no light, no love, no 
peace, until the rays of the Sun of Righteousness shine 
in dispelling the gloom." (A Missionary.) 



THE CHINESE WOMAN 87 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 

1. Make a list of the books prepared bj the Chinese 
for the instruction of girls. 

2. Tell something of the change that has recently 
taken place in the social life of the Chinese woman, 
and who helped to bring it about. 

3. Do Chinese families eat together? Where is 
woman's realm? 

4. Tell something about foot-binding. 

5. Tell what jou can of woman in literature; in art; 
in government ; in war. 

6. What important meeting was held in Canton? 
What does it indicate as to the new life? 

7. Is there any difference between the theoretical and 
the real position of the Chinese woman? Tell what 
you can of concubinage. What does it mean to "eat 
vinegar " ? 

8. Do people lack the power to suffer because they 
lack social position or wealth? Tell something of the 
slave girl, the concubine, the great mass of the sub- 
merged. 

9. Tell the story of ''Our Baby"; of saving the life 
of her little slave; of the old and new methods of get- 
ting engaged. What is the supreme opportunity? 



CHAPTER III 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 



Ckinese 
Veneration 
for Education. 



Relation Be- 
tween Old 
and New. 



Perhaps there never was a people who had a 
more profound reverence for education than have 
the Chinese. The highest rank has been ac- 
corded the scholar because he dealt with the 
things of the mind. Below him stood the farmer 
because he created the material supplies necessary 
to nourish life. Next stood the mechanic because 
he fashioned and built; then the trader who did 
not create wealth either intellectual or material, 
and lowest of all the soldier whose mission was 
to destroy. 

With such an estimate of the place of the 
scholar it is easy to see the commanding place 
which education must hold in building the new 
China. The old system has passed away; the 
new is in process of creation. The destiny of 
one fourth the human race will be determined 
perhaps for a millennium by the character of that 
education. 

It goes without saying that the new must be 
carefully articulated to the old. All that is 
worthy in the old must be conserved with jealous 
care. On this as on a bridge the rich heritage 
of the Chinese gathered through thousands of 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 89 

years of unbroken history, and tradition must be 
carried over into the new domain of thought. 

China cannot make this transition unaided. Chinas Need 
Her scholars are too thoroughly imbued with the of Help, 
numbing spirit of classicism. She must rely 
upon her young men trained in Christian lands 
and upon those trained in the Christian schools 
located within the empire. The large number 
of those sent abroad by the government will be 
absorbed in government and diplomatic service. 
It is chiefly upon the missionaries and the 
students, they train that China must rely to make 
the transition which is full of tragic peril, but so 
essential to her fuller life. 

It is the aim of this chapter, first, to prepare Aim of 
for an appreciation of the situation by a brief Chapter, 
study of the system of intellectual and moral dis- 
cipline comprised in the classical Chinese educa- 
tion; second, to recount the steps taken by the 
government to substitute modern education; 
third, to show what part is played by various 
Christian churches in supplying modern schools, 
and fourth, to indicate some of the lines on which 
successful development must proceed in the 
future. It is my hope that students of this chap- 
ter may gain a fresh conception of the magnitude 
of the opportunity now offered in the educational 
situation in China. 

Nothing that one could say would express more Be^nBings of 
concisely the Chinese idea of when an education Old System 
ought to begin and what it ought to be than a few of Education. 



90 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



quotations from their own teachings. In the 
"Classic for Girls" quoted elsewhere it is urged 
upon every mother that she should, — 

Of pre-natal education 
Be attentive as a mother, 

For the influence is mutual 
Of each upon the other. 

Whether walking, standing, sitting 
Or reclining have a rule, 

E'en in eating and in drinking. 
Have a care yourself to school. 

Nursery. I^ its infancy the prattling child is taught 

nursery jingles similar to our own Mother 
Goose, and one cannot long be with mother or 
nurse, or big sister taking care as she does of 
the smaller children, without seeing her taking 
hold of its fingers or toes as she repeats, — 

This little cow eats grass. 
This little cow eats hay, 

This little cow drinks water, 
This little cow runs away. 

This little cow does nothing 
But just lie down all day. 
We'll whip her. 

With which last expression she playfully slaps 
the sole of the little one's foot. 
Primers. Boys and girls are allowed to play together 

until they are seven or eight years of age when 
the boy is given a book like the "Three Charac- 
ter Classic," the first two lines of which tell him 
that, — 

* Men one and all in infancy are virtuous at heart. 

Their moral tendencies the same, their practice wide 
apart. 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 91 

Not one word of which he understands. Or it 
may be he is given the 

"Rules of Behavior" for brothers and sons, Rules of Be- 

Teachings of ancient and virtuous ones, tavior. 

First be you filial and brotherly, then, 
Try to be faithful and earnest as men. 

And the child sits upon a backless bench or a 
high stool until he has committed it, and then 
recites it with his back to the teacher. 

The mother has charge of the early education 
of the children, for we are told that, — 

For her son she calls a teache^ 

And she places him in school, 

Where he learns to write short ballads, 

Studies how to be discreet, 
Loves his teacher and rewards him 

Both with money and with meat. 

For the teacher during the old regime was ex- 
pected to take a part of his pay in rations from 
his pupils. 

In addition to the two primers mentioned above One Tkou- 
the boy commits the ''Thousand Character sandCkaracter 
Classic,'* a primer of one thousand words, no two Classic, 
of which are alike ; the composition of which was 
done by a scholar on the order of the Emperor, 
in a single night, and as a result his hair turned 
gray. He also commits another primer called 
the "Hundred Surnames," none of which he 
understands as they are written in the classical 
language which is to the spoken language what 
Latin was to English in Wesley's time. After 



92 CHINAS NEW DAT 

all these are stored away in his tu tzu^ — his ab- 
domen, — for a Chinaman's knowledge is all car- 
ried in that receptacle, rather than in his head, 
they are ''explained" by the teacher, then by the 
boy, and from these primers he has secured the 
foundation of all Chinese history, poetry, philos- 
ophy, social rules, and has a good start with the 
language, for he now has every proper family 
name he will ever meet in his books, and has 
more than half as many words as Shakespeare 
used in all his plays and poems. 

With his reading he learned to write, first by 
placing a sheet of translucent paper over the 
Reading character and copying it with a brush pen. Up 

to this time he has probably only had a milk 
name, but now he is given a school name, and 
begins his study in earnest, on the ''Confucian 
Analects," "Great Learning," "Doctrine of the 
Mean" and "Mencius," the choicest specimens 
as they suppose of Chinese literature. He "com- 
mits" them, then "backs" them, and goes through 
all the processes of explaining as he did with the 
primer, while at the same time he continues his 
penmanship — or brushmanship whichever you 
please to term it. They are taken in the order 
given, while he commits the second the teacher 
explains the first, and so on^ giving him such a 
\ constant and thorough review, that during all his 
life, if he has done his work well, he is able to 
quote any sentence to which his attention is 
directed. When examination day comes the 



AN ED UCA TIONAL RE VOL UTION 93 

teacher may call in an examiner who will simply 
start any sentence he happens to think of, which 
the pupil continues until he is called down by 
some other catch word. At any time he may be 
asked to explain the meaning of the sentence as 
given in the commentary or by the teacher, or he 
may be asked to sing some snatch of poetry, mak- 
ing his own tune as he goes, or he may be asked 
to write some original poem or ess«ay. 

The school in which he studies may be a room Tte Sckool. 
in his father's home, some particular school for 
boys, a public school, a village school held in a 
temple, or a city school to which he has been 
admitted if he is prepared and if there is a va- 
cancy. The furniture of these schools is prac- 
tically the same all over a province, — high, 
plain, square or oblong tables, at which he is re- 
quired .to sit straight, except when writing, on 
hard flat stools or benches without any depres- 
sions to adapt them to the curves of the body. 
On these he sits day after day, month after month 
and year after year, for there were no weeks in 
China under the old regime. He studies aloud 
with twenty or thirty other boys, his head and 
body swaying to the rhythm of the book, and 
shouting it out in a sing-song tone, the only varia- 
tion of which is the pitch or loudness of his 
voice, and the ear of the teacher becomes so well 
trained that he is able to detect an error in the 
naming or tone of a character no matter how 
many boys there may be. 



94 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

Four Books When he has finished the Four Books, he con- 

and Five tinues, without intermission, with the Five 

Classics. Classics, the "Spring and Autumn," and the 

books of ''Poetry," "History," "Rites and 

Changes," which were prepared by Confucius 

twenty-four centuries ago. These he commits 

and explains as he did the others, until — if he has 

done his work well, and his memory is faithful — 

his entire Bible, as well as the whole curriculum 

of the school or of the nation is at his tongue's 

end, together with much of the commentary of 

each book. 

Poetry. With these he takes up the study of poetry, 

for China had her Elizabethan age of poetry way 

back in the eighth century, and I have often sat 

with delight and listened to the students during 

examination chanting the poems of Li Tai-po or 

Tu Fu or Su Tttng-p^o^ the rhythm of which is 

quite equal to that of Pope or Byron, Horace or 

Anacreon. All the choicest bits — for the poems 

are mostly short — of the great poets of the past 

are stored away in the same receptacle with his 

primers and his classics, and this at an age when 

it will be almost impossible to forget them. 

Defect of His But now comes the first defect of his old sys- 

System. tem ; he has continued memorizing until he is 

I past the time where he should begin to reason, is 

:^ without any system of study which is calculated 

to develop the thinking faculties, and has arrived 

at the age when he should begin the study of 

belles-lettres^ the wen-changs or essays of the 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 95 

ancient masters of literary style. This is an in- 
terminable task. But it is as interesting as it is 
interminable. It is an effort on the part of these 
scholars to embody the greatest number of refer- 
ences, to the most interesting incidents of the past 
either in history, poetry, fiction or fairy tale, and 
in the choicest language and fewest words. The 
student pores over volume after volume of these 
essays, and commits them to memory in the hope 
of absorbing the style of the author or of devel- 
oping a style of his own that is as good or better. 
It is thought boiled down to its last consistency 
in words. 

Such in brief is the course of study through A Great 
which the student had to pass, before he was al- Field, 
lowed to browse at will throughout all Chinese 
literature. To be a scholar at all he must absorb 
the history of China with special biographical 
incidents of great men, and a thorough knowledge 
of particular periods. There are encyclopedias of 
science, a compendium of the most brilliant say- 
ings of the sages. In addition to the orthodox 
philosophers — for those who followed Confucius 
were orthodox and those who did not were not 
— there was a bevy of men whose works are 
bound up in the "Twenty-four Philosoj^hers." 

The student was expected to be familiar with Lack of 
all the scientific books, — falsely so called, — books Science. 
on the stars, on rocks, on flowers, on animals, on 
laws of nature, even on the bogies of the moun- 
tain and of the sea — bogie books that rival Mun- 



96 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

chausen and Gulliver. But though the Chinese 
have spent much time in studying all subjects, 
being without a system* which would develop 
the reasoning and inventive powers, they have 
never been able to organize their thought into 
anything like a science of astronomy, geology, 
botany, zoology, physics or chemistry, or any 
other natural or applied science. Indeed with 
all their body full of knowledge the Chinese have 
never contributed anything toward the develop- 
ment of science, nor studied any of the results of 
scientific thought until it was introduced into 
China by the missionaries- from the West. Their 
ideas of nature and her laws are not only simple, 
Fen^-shui ^^^ oftcn very absurd. In their Feng-shui they 

have what might be termed a system of natural 
science, but which is in reality a system of geo- 
mancy. It originated with the Taoist alchemists 
of pre-Christian times, and undertakes to explain 
the influence of the occult laws of nature on 
human life. The ordinary student is hardly ex- 
pected to understand them, and so the final inter- 
pretation of them is usually left to the soothsayer 
who does it for a consideration. 
No Study to ^ have already indicated that there is nothing 
Develop tke in the whole course of study of the old system of 
Thinking Chinese education which is calculated to do for 

Powers. ^Y.Q thinking faculties what mathematics and the 

sciences do in ours. And so reason and inven- 
tion have remained dormant in the Chinese 
mind. They have never invented anything. 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 97 

That does not mean that they do not possess most 
of the useful arts and appliances. They do. 
They have practically everything that is necessary 
to perform all the daily tasks of life. They 
stumble upon things. They ksian^fa tzu — think Stumble Upon 
of a way to do things, and when they have Things, 
thought out a way of doing it, they put it aside 
and never try to improve it. They stumbled 
upon gunpowder — no, not gunpowder, but fire- 
cracker powder, for they never made a gun that 
was worth the name — two hundred years B. C, 
in their alchemistic experiments searching for 
the elixir of life, but they never made any good 
gunpowder until they came in contact with the 
West. They stumbled upon the mariner's com- 
pass eleven hundred years B. C, but they have 
never made anything but a ckzh nan chen^ a 
south-pointing needle, until the present time. 
They stumbled upon printing five hundred years 
before Guttenberg, but their "Peking Gazette, " 
theirnational newspaper, when I went to China was 
the oldest and worst printed newspaper in the 
world. While the Chinese are noted for their 
commercial astuteness, and are among the best 
and most reliable business men in the world, ac- 
knowledged so by the business men of Europe, 
their educational system has never enabled them 
to make a commercial success of what might be 
considered their great discoveries or inventions. 
They therefore needed a new system ; let us see 
as we proceed whether they wanted it. 



98 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

Great Col- For more than a thousand years they had two 

leges. great educational institutions located at Peking 

— the Kuo Tzu Chien^ or College for the Sons 
of the Efnpire^ and the IIa7i Lin Tuan^ or 
Forest of Pencils. These were, however, with- 
out any of the characteristics of what with us go 
to make up a college. No teachers, no pupils, 
no dormitories, no apparatus, — nothing but a 
building or two and a library. The former is a 
square building, surrounded by a row of sheds 
under which are the Four Books and Five 
Classics, carved on stone tablets, which remind 
one of a cemetery. This is in close proximity to 
the Confucian temple, in the front court of which 
are more tombstones on which are carved the 
names of every graduate of the third degree for 
the past eight hundred years. 
Old Exami- This brings us to the old examination system of 

nation. China, which was the fruit of four thousand 

■^ ' years of study and experience, for it began with 

the Sage Emperor Shun (2200 B. C), who es- 
tablished the custom of examining his army offi- 
cers every third year, ''emphasizing the able and 
promoting the worthy." 
Degrees. They had five degrees which they might re- 

ceive by passing corresponding examinations: 
1, hsiitts* ai\ 2, chujen\ 3, chin shih\ ^fian lin\ 
5, chuang yuan. The examinations for the hsin 
ts^ai were held in the county seat, conducted by 
a chancellor who has educational supervision 
over a province. There would gather from one 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 99 

to two thousand competitors, from the boy in his 
teens to the old man in his dotage, from which 
number only fifty to one hundred would receive 
the degree of budding genius. Once in three 
years the successful candidates were examined in 
the provincial capital, when ten thousand more 
or less, shut themselves up in little cells, three 
times of three days each, to prepare compositions 
in prose or verse, from whom one in a hundred 
might be given the degree of promoted scholar. 
The following year he might enter the triennial 
examination in Peking, with fifteen thousand 
others, where three in a hundred were allowed to 
pass, and were considered ready for office. 
Thrice he had contested with his peers, and thrice 
he had been a picked man of picked men. The 
three 'hundred or more who came out successful 
in the last contest might enter the examination for 
the han lin^ or membership in the Imperial 
Academy, from the successful competitors of 
which were chosen the chancellors, poet-laureates, 
imperial historians, or other occupants of im- 
portant positions. Again once in three years 
these Jian tins were allowed to compete in an 
examination in the presence of the Emperor, and 
the one putting in the best paper was given the 
degree of chuang yuan^ a picked man of picked 
men sorted over five times, a flower which 
bloomed but once in three years in an empire of 
four hundred million of people. To induce them 
to give up such a system of education as that re- 
quired a tremendous force. 



100 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Protestantism 
Opens the 
Breact. 



Tke Cry of 
the Empty 
Stomach. 



Overtaxa- 
tion. 



For ninety years the Protestant missionaries 
had been working in China; during the last forty 
or fifty of these years they had done much in educa- 
tional work. They had made some impression 
upon the people, and a little upon the government, 
but it was not until Kuang Hsii came to the throne, 
and China began to be mixed up with other 
governments in a political way that she began to 
think of making any changes in her system of 
education. 

The method of Kuang Hsii's development we 
have given in another chapter and it will not be 
necessary to re|)eat it here. A Japanese writer 
in the "Review of Reviews," gives among other 
causes of the present reform ''the cry of the 
empty stomach." He says that the Chinese know 
that they have not wasted their gray lives ifi idle- 
ness. They have always worked in the years 
past; they are willing to work in the years to 
come. Their soil is rich and kind. Though 
flood and drought have sometimes come, had they 
been allowed to keep the fruit of their toil, they 
would not need to trouble either the yamen or 
the altars of their gods or ancestors. They are 
starving to-day, and when one of the officials 
was appealed to about the establishment of hospi- 
tals to relieve their suffering, and to distribute 
food to the hungry, he said, "Let them die, we 
have too many people anyhow." 

The people during the old regime were over- 
taxed. They were squeezed by the officials 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 101 

whenever they went to the yamen in a lawsuit, 
or whenever either through fault, or through no 
fault of their own they could be dragged to the 
yamen. They began to learn of the prosperity of 
Western lands and to inquire the reason therefor. 
They answered in their own hearts that it was 
Western science and Western government, all of 
which depended more or less on Western educa- 
tional methods, and when Kuang Hsii took up the 
study of English, as he did, before he began is- 
suing his reform edicts, it was noised throughout 
the empire, and the mission schools were too 
small to accommodate the students that sought 
admission. When it became known that Kuang 
Hsii was favorable to the Christian faith, from 
the eunuchs in the palace to the student in the 
remotest corner of the empire, people wanted to 
know more about this doctrine. Likewise when 
the Empress Dowager dethroned His Majesty, 
everyone turned anti-foreign once more, and even 
the children on the street reverted to their habit of 
calling us "foreign devils." The pulse of the 
nation changed with the pulse of the palace. We 
could feel the pulse, as some one said, but we 
could not count it. 

The whole object of the young Emperor was The Object of 
to make China strong. She was weak. He the Emperor, 
knew she was weak, as the world counted weak- 
ness, for just at that time Japan and Germany, 
Russia and France, were anxious for a slice of 
her territory. They had discussed her division. 



102 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

they each had their sphere of influence, and it 
only required some small explosion to ignite the 
powder mill which would reduce China to a 
multitude of remains scattered among the nations 
of Europe. 
Edict Order- ^^ ^^^ Summer of 1898 he issued an edict to the 
ing Practical effect that "Our scholars are now without solid 
Education. and practical education; our artisans are without 
scientific instructors; when compared with other 
countries" (Germany, Russia, England and 
France who had just taken Chiao Chou, Port 
Arthur, Dalne, Wei Hai Wei and Kuang Chou 
Wan) "we soon see how weak we are. Does 
anyone think that our t roof s are as iv ell drilled 
or as well led as those of foreign armies ; or that 
we can successfully stand against any of them?" 
(That is the crux of the change.) "Changes must 
be made to accord with the necessities of the 
times. . . . Keeping in mind the morals of the 
sages and wise men, we must make them the 
basis on which to build newer and better struc- 
tures. We must substitute modern arms and 
Western organization for our old regime; we 
must select our military officers according to 
Western methods of military organization ; we 
must establish elementary and high schools, col- 
leges and universities, in accordance with those 
of foreign countries ; we must abolish the wen- 
chang (literary essay) and obtain a knowledge of 
ancient and modern world history and a right 
conception of the present day state of affairs, 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 103 

with special reference to the governments and 
institutions of the countries of the five great con- 
tinents ; and w^e must understand their arts and 
sciences." 

The effect of this edict was to bring hundreds of Large Young 
thousands of the young men who aspired to office Following, 
under the new regime, to put aside the classics 
and the tomes of literature and poetry, the wagon 
loads of history, and to unite in establishing re- 
form clubs in many of the provincial capitals, 
prefectural cities and open ports. Book depots 
were opened for the sale of the same kind of lit- 
erature as that studied by His Majesty, maga- 
zines and newspapers were issued and circulated 
in great numbers, lectures were delivered in 
great halls to concourses of young men, libraries 
were established in convenient localities, and 
students flocked to the mission schools, ready to 
study anything the course contained, whether 
literary, scientific or religious. We had tele- 
grams at Peking University from all over the 
empire saying, "Reserve a place for me, I am 
sending tuition by letter." Even Christians 
and pastors were invited into the palace by the 
eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. 

On June 11, 1898, the Emperor issued an edict Edict Order- 
ordering a great central university to be es- ing Univer- 
tablished in Peking, the funds for which were to "^y- 
be provided by the government, the closing 
words of which were: ''We hope that all will 
take advantage of the opportunities for modern 



104 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

education thus open to them, that in time we may 
have many competent helpers in the great work 
of putting our country on a level with the strong- 
est of the Western Powers." Observe the animus 
of the edict, as well as that of the earlier date. 
It was to reconstruct the army and make China 
strong, enabling her to withstand the aggressions 
of the European powers which were at that time 
ready to divide her up among themselves, for it 
was the object of Europe, until John Hay stepped 
in to prevent it, to divide Asia up among Russia, 
Germany, England, France and Japan, as they 
had sliced up the continent of Africa. On the 
26th of the same month he censured the princes 
and ministers who were lax in reporting upon 
the above edict, and ordered them to do so at 
once without further delay. 
Edict Order- O^^ J^^Y 1^^^ the Emperor ordered that 
ing Sctools ''schools and colleges be established in all the 
and Colleges, provincial capitals, prefectural, departmental and 
district cities," and allowed the viceroys and 
governors but two months to "report upon the 
number of colleges and free schools within their 
provinces," saying that ''all must be changed 
into schools for the practical teaching of Chinese 
literature and Western learning, and become 
feeders to the Peking Imperial University. " He 
ordered further that "all memorial and other 
temples erected by the people, and not recorded 
in the list of the Board of Rites and of Sacrificial 
Worship, are to be turned into schools and col- 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 105 

leges for the propagation of Western learning, " — 
a thought which was quite in harmony with that 
advocated by Chang Chih-tung, but not with the 
sentiment of the people. The funds for estab- 
lishing these schools and carrying on this work 
were to be provided by the China Merchants' 
Steamship Company, the Telegraph Administra- 
tion and the great lottery in Canton. 

On August 4th he ordered that numerous pre- Preparatory 
paratory schools be established in Peking as Sckools. 
feeders for the Univeristy; and on the 9th ap- 
pointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as head of the 
faculty, and approved the site suggested by Sun 
Chia-nai, the president. On the 16th he au- 
thorized the establishment of a bureau for "trans- 
lating into Chinese, Western works on science, 
arts and literature, and text-books for use in the 
schools and colleges," and on the 19th he 
abolished the Palace Examinations for Han Lin 
as "useless, superficial and. obsolete," thus sev- 
ering the last cord that bound them to the old 
regime. While this was happening in Peking 
there was a Man Lin spending the summer with 
me in my home at the seashore. When these 
edicts of such moment began to come out in such 
rapid succession, he said to me each day as he 
read the "Peking Gazette, " "If the Emperor con- 
tinues that kind of reform we will end up with a 
revolution." Again after several edicts had ap- 
peared he came to me in great excitement and 
said, "I must go to Peking. There is going to 



106 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Empress 
Do-wager at 
Hills. 



Coup d'etat. 



Reforms 
Counter- 
mianded. 



be trouble;" and when the trouble came in 1900 
he buried my copies of Gray's "Anatomy" and 
Scripture's ''Thinking, Feeling and Doing," 
wrapped up in oil cloth, in his own yard, that 
the Boxers might not find them in his home. 
They remain in the Peking University library 
to-day — half-rotten relics of the summer of 1900. 

While the Emperor was issuing these reform 
edicts, the Empress Dowager was spending the 
hot months quietly resting at the summer palace 
at the hills fifteen miles west of Peking, offering 
neither advice, objection nor hindrance, allowing 
him a free hand in his government. But when 
his reforms became too radical, and promised to 
bring about a revolution, at the earnest request 
of two delegations of officials and princes, whom 
he had dismissed or ordered to be assassinated, 
she felt compelled to once more take the throne, 
thus placing herself at the head of the govern- 
ment for a third time, and for the most part in 
the hands of the Conservative party, though she 
always kept all the great officials of both parties 
closely allied with her government. 

All his reforms except those of the Peking 
University, the provincial, prefectural, depart- 
mental and district schools, were for the time 
countermanded, — all those that would anger the 
people, — and the Boxers were allowed to[test their 
strength with the allied Powers. After their 
failure, and while she was still in Hsianfu, on 
August 29, 1901, the Empress Dowager issued 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION \^1 

an edict ordering ''the abolition of essays on the 
Chinese Classics in examinations for literary 
degrees, and substituting therefor essays and 
articles on some phase of modern affairs, Western 
laws or political economy. This same procedure 
is to be followed in examination of candidates 
for office, ' ' — an edict which was quite in harmony 
with that sent out by the Emperor three years 
before; indeed a careful examination of the • 
Empress Dowager's edicts of this time will re- 
veal the fact that they are only a reissuing of 
those promulgated by Kuang Hsii in 1898. 

In this same edict she said: ''The old methods 
of gaining military degrees by trial of strength, 
by stone weights, agility with the sword, marks- 
manship with the bow on foot or on horseback 
(for they rode a horse along a trench and shot 
arrows at a roll or rolls of matting) are of no use 
to men in the army when strategy and military 
science are the sine qua non to office, and hence 
should be done away with forever." 

September 12, 1901, she issued another edict Reforms Be- 
commanding "all colleges in the empire to be t^-^^v 
turned into schools of Western learning; each onager, 
provincial capital to have a university like that 
in Peking, whilst all the schools in the pre- 
fectures and districts are to be schools and col- 
leges of the second or third class," a sort of state 
university system. 

On September 17th she ordered "the viceroys Young Men 
and governors of other provinces to follow the Sent Abroad. 



108 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

example of Lin Kun-yi of Liangkiang, Chang 
Chih-tung of Hukuang, and Knei Chun of 
Szechuan, in sending men of scholastic promise 
abroad to study any branch of Western science or 
art best suited to their tastes, that in time they 
may return to China and place the fruits of their 
knowledge at the service of the empire," an edict 
which smacks very much of those of Kuang Hsii. 
■ What now was the result? 
Sliansi Uni- The Imperial College in Shansi was opened 

versity. with three hundred students, all of whom had the 

Chinese chu jen or B.A. degree. It had a 
Chinese and a foreign department, and after the 
students had completed the first, they were al- 
lowed to pass on to the second, which had six 
foreign professors who held diplomas from 
Western colleges or universities, and a staff of 
six translators of Western university text-books 
into Chinese, superintended by a foreigner. 
Ten Provinces In 1901-1902 ten provinces opened colleges for 
Open Col- which they raised more than $400,000. At the 
^^^"- request of Governor Yuan Shi ki of Shantung, 

Dr. W. M. Hayes resigned the presidency of the 
Presbyterian College at Teng-chou-fu, a college 
which has turned out a large number of educated 
young men into governmental and church service, 
and accepted the presidency of the new govern- 
ment college at the provincial capital. He drew 
up a working plan of grammar and high schools 
for the province, which were to be feeders for the 
provincial college. This was approved by the 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 109 

Governor, embodied in a memorial to the Throne, 
copies of which the Empress Dowager sent to 
the governors and viceroys of all the provinces, 
declaring it to be a law, and ordering ^'the vice- 
roys, governors and literary chancellors to see that 
it was obeyed." Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shi ki 
soon split upon a regulation which the Governor 
thought it best to introduce to the effect "that 
the Chinese professors shall, on the first and fif- 
teenth of each month, conduct their classes in 
reverential sacrifice to the most Holy Teacher 
Confucius, and to all the former worthies and 
scholars of the provinces." Dr. Hayes and his 
Christian teachers withdrew; but it was not long 
until those who professed Christianity were ex- 
cused from this rite, while the Christian Chinese 
physicians who taught in the Peking Imperial 
University were allowed to dispense with the 
queue and wear foreign clothes as they had done 
while studying in America, because it was more 
convenient and sanitary. 

When Governor Yuan was made viceroy of Dr. Tenncy 
Chihli, he requested another missionary. Dr. C. Establishes 
D. Tenney, to draw up and put into operation a P^bhc School 
similar schedule for the metropolitan province, y^*^™- 
This was done on a very much enlarged scale, 
as was also the case in many of the other prov- 
inces. In 1909 ''the Chihli province alone has 
nine thousand schools, all of which are aiming 
at Western education, while in the empire as a 
whole there are not less than thirty to forty thou- 



no CHINA'S NEW DAY 

sand schools, colleges and universities, repre- 
senting some of the educational changes that have 
taken place in China during the past eight 
years." During the three years that have fol- 
lowed since the above statement \7as made by 
Bishop Bashford, other schools have been opened, 
and many of the former have been closed, and the 
government has offered to allow us to put a 
Christian teacher in any one of these schools, as 
we have said elsewhere, if we will pay $10 to $20 
a year toward his salary. Now is the time for 
the Christian Church to rally to the support of its 
own schools, increase their efficiency, and send 
out more graduates who can take positions in 
their government institutions. 
Girls' On one occasion when Mrs. Headland was in 

Schools. the palace the Empress Dowager said to her, ^'I 

understand that in your honorable country the 
girls study the same as the boys." 

''They do," said Mrs. Headland. "They go 
to the same schools and study the same books." 

''I wish our girls could study," exclaimed 
Her Majesty. 

''Would it not be possible to open schools for 
the instruction of girls?" .asked her visitor. 

"No," she answered, "our taxes are now so 
heavy that it would be impossible to add another 
such as that would necessitate upon the people." 
Young Ladies Mrs. Headland knew that among her young 
Studying. Chinese friends there were many who were de- 

voting a large part of their time to study, in pre- 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 111 

paration for the new day that most of them felt 
assured was soon coming to China, and so she 
asked, ''If Your Majesty should issue an edict 
approving of the education of girls might there 
not be many benevolently disposed people in your 
honorable country who w^ould open schools for 
their instruction?" 

In less than two weeks' time the Empress Dowager Is- 
Dowager issued such an edict and forthwith girls' sues Edict, 
schools began to spring up all over the empire, 
and it is worthy of note that when Her Majesty 
sent the commission, headed by Duke Tse and 
accompanied by Tai Hung-Tzu and Tuan Fang, 
around the world in 1906 to inquire as to the 
best kind of a constitution to give to the people, 
the members of this commission told us that: — 

"The Empress Dowager charged us to inquire Commission 
especially into the education of girls in the to Inquire 
United States, since she hopes on our return to be About Girls. 

oil 

able to found a school for the education of the '^ 
daughters of the princes." 

Before that commission could return, however, 
many of the princes had solved that problem for 
themselves by founding girls' schools in their 
own palaces. 

One day a message came to one of the mis- a Mongol 
sionaries from the Princess Ka-la-chin, the sister SchooHor 
of Prince Su, who was married to a Mongol Girls, 
prince. The physician took her medical outfit at 
once, and started to the home of the princess 
thinking that some one was ill. When she 



112 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Princess Vis- 
its Christian 
Schools. 



Chinese Lady- 
Teaches in 
Mongol 
School. 



Mongol Girls 
Slow. 



arrived the princess met her with a smile on her 
face, saying, "No one is ill, I just wanted to talk 
to you about girls' schools. I am thinking of 
starting one in our palace in Mongolia, and 1 
want to learn all about them before I return." 

She was invited to visit the girls' schools in 
Peking, where she was assured that she would 
learn more in an hour than she would by talking 
about them for a much longer time. This she 
did. She visited many mission schools, and 
before she returned she was prepared to open her 
school in Mongolia. 

She invited one of our Ckuang Tilan friend's 
daughters to go with her to teach the Chinese 
Classics, employed a young Japanese lady to 
teach the foreign studies, and Miss Hsii told us 
the next year when she returned that after their 
day's work they would all don men's garb (a not 
uncommon thing for Chinese girls to do when 
they go upon the street) and go for a horseback 
ride across the plains. 

But the Mongol girls were not accustomed to 
getting up and being in school at nine o'clock in 
the morning. The princess might have sent a 
servant around the village to wake them up and 
call them to their study. She was afraid this 
would not be effective, and so she asked the 
prince to get on his horse, ride about the village, 
and impress upon the girls the importance of 
being in school at nine o'clock, as she proposed 
to have her school carried on after the most 




Graduating Class, Girls' College, Foochow 

Woman's Board of Missions 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 113 

approved fashion of the West. The next summer 
when she came down to Peking she brought with 
her almost a score of Mongolian girls in order 
that they might see the capital and visit the 
girls' schools. 

One day when one of the missionaries w'as Princess Su's 
calling at the palace of Prince Su, the princess School, 
invited her to go in and see their school. It was 
in an attractive room, and was for the members 
of her own family. The curriculum was care- 
fully written out, and consisted of reading, writ- 
ing the Chinese characters, arithmetic, music, 
drawing, embroidery and kindred subjects. After 
she had watched them at this work for some time 
under the Japanese lady teacher, the prince came 
in. 



E 



xercise. 



Please show us your calisthenics," he said. International 
Their books were put away, and arranging Cahstlienic 
themselves in order, they went through their 
exercises to the tune of, — 

Ho my comrades see the signal 
Waving in the sky, 

played on an American organ by a Japanese 
teacher, who had been educated in a mission 
school. 

But these girls' schools were not confined to 
Peking. No sooner had the edict left the palace 
than girls' schools began to spring up all over 
the empire. A lady in Honan opened a school, 
and in the enthusiasm of a new idea she easily 
raised the money for its support for the first year. 



114 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



A Cbinese 
Heroine. 



A Chinese 
Martyr. 



The second year it was not so easy. She sent 
letters to the officials, but they did not respond. 
She then cut a great g-ash in her arm, and sat 
out in a public place at the temple fair to attract 
the attention and solicit the aid of the passers- 
by. This also failed to secure the amount 
needed. She then wrote a letter to the officials 
saying^: "I have already asked you for help for 
the support of my girls' school, but you have 
turned a deaf ear to my appeal. When this letter 
reaches you I shall be a corpse. I propose to 
take my life and try in this way to impress upon 
the people the importance of the education of 
girls." 

She took her own life, and at once memorial 
services began to be held all over the empire. 
One of these was held in connection with the 
school established in the home of another sister 
of Prince Su — the Fourth Princess. One day I 
was going down Liu Li Chang, the book street 
of Peking, and my attention was called to a great 
meeting that was being held in a temple there. I 
inquired as to its meaning and was told that it 
was a memorial service to this same lady. I pur- 
chased a ticket and went in. There I found a 
great mixed audience of men and women, a most 
unusual thing for China; and among other 
features of the entertainment the girls from the 
school of the Fourth Princess came out upon a 
rostrum, recited pieces, and went through their 
calisthenic exercises for the entertainment of the 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 115 

audience, and the endowment of the martyr 
school. 

Now it may appear to my readers that I have 
put the cart before the horse in describing the 
governmental changes that have taken place in 
China, before saying anything about the educa- 
tional institutions that have contributed to bring 
about that reform. I have done this intentionally. Is TKis Old 
and for this reason. I have given an educational Educational 
system that has prevailed in that old and mighty System Ade- 
empire for fifteen centuries. I have tried to be °^^ ^' 
faithful in my description. I have tried to show 
what great books they have made, though I shall 
have more to say on that subject in discussing 
their literature. I have tried to show what great 
educational institutions they developed, and how 
faithful the students were in storing away the 
accumulated literary gems of the past thirty cen- 
turies. Perhaps I have overdone the matter. 
Perhaps there are those who will say: ^'If the 
Chinese have all this great literature, if they 
have all this great educational system, why not 
leave them alone .^ They are satisfied with what 
they have." 

Is that true? Are the Chinese satisfied with 
what they have.'' Was their educational system 
good enough for them? Who is the most com- 
petent to decide that question? Surely the The Chinese 
Chinese are the ones to decide, and they have People An- 
decided. The Chinese Government, led by swer. 
Kuang Hsii, the Empress Dowager, Chang Chih- 



116 



CHINAS NEW DAY 



Missionary 
Origin of 
New Educa- 
tion. 



Close View of 

Christian 

Schools. 

London Mis- 
sionary So- 
ciety. 



tung, Yuan Shi ki and all the greatest officials 
of the past quarter of a century, say that that old 
system of education is not good enough for them. 
They have given it up, and they have given it 
up forever. 

They have adopted instead the very system that 
w^as carried to China by the missionaries, that 
was taught to the people by the missionaries, that 
v^as established for the government by the mis- 
sionaries, — the system that was developed by the 
gospel of Jesus Christ in the countries and among 
the people it dominates. Nothing is good 
enough for the Chinese but the best. They are a 
great people without the gospel, but they will be 
a mighty people when they have accepted the 
gospel if we are to judge from the examples of 
those who sealed their testimony by their death 
during the Boxer uprising, and still better if we 
are to judge from the examples of those all over 
the empire at the present time who are sealing 
their testimony by a self-sacrificing life. 

And now let me give a more detailed view of 
the forces that have contributed to this mighty 
intellectual revolution. 

Let us begin in South China, for there is 
where missions first began. We find the London 
missionary with such men as Morrison, and 
Milne, and Legge, and Edkins, and Chalmers, 
and a host of other honored men who translated 
the Bible, made dictionaries, wrote hymns, trans- 
lated the Classics into English, and were them- 



AJV EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 117 

selves great enough to be supported by the East 
India Company for their work, or to be called 
back from China to England to take a place as 
professor in one or the other of her two largest 
universities. It was these men who by their lives 
and their work, began to shed the dews of their 
intelligence, their teaching, and their sympathy 
upon this great unresponsive people. For a time 
they felt that the great commission was simply to 
go into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. Then they discovered that Jesus 
Christ also ordered his disciples to go and teach 
all nations, and they began to open schools. 

One could hardly go to Canton without finding Presbytt 
there that great Christian college which stands Work, 
like an arc light in that great city. An institu- 
tion that has been sending young men out as 
preachers, as teachers, as business men, as Chris- 
tian statesmen. Another great Presbyterian 
school was located at Teng-chou-fu, where Dr. 
Charles W. Mateer and his noble wife worked 
side by side for so many years. One in a school 
for boys, and the other near by in a school for 
girls, turned out young men and women who es- 
tablished the churches that were opened by two 
such patriarchs as John L. Nevius and Hunter 
Corbett. The same church furnished W. A. P. 
Martin to the Chinese Government to open its 
first two colleges, and President Tenney, as I 
have said elsewhere, to found the first provincial 
college in Shantung. Oh! yes, if you are a Pres- 



118 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

byterian you may be proud of the work that 
these men and a hundred others have done, and of 
the noble women who have worked by their side, 
in their girls' schools furnishing wives — Chris- 
tian wives, educated wives, women who are able 
to go with them into society, and converse with 
them, and shall I add, help them? — nay, I would 
rather say do the same kind of work for their 
sisters that the men are doing for their brothers. 
Many of these Chinese Christian men from these 
Presbyterian colleges have gone out to become 
professors in Methodist, Congregational, Baptist 
and governmental imperial colleges. 
Congrega- Perhaps you are a Congregationalist. If so, 

tional Col- then from Foochow to Peking you have been 
leges. establishing these great dynamos of intelligence, 

these electric light plants which have been shed- 
ding a glow which has not only illuminated the 
Orient, but has shone with as brilliant a light in 
the Occident. Who of you does not know of 
your girls' college in Foochow, of Dr. Sheffield 
the head of the North China College, who has 
been sending out young men as teachers, as 
preachers, as martyrs? Who does not know 
Goodrich, the maker of dictionaries and trans- 
lator of the Bible, and Arthur H. Smith, one of 
the most brilliant preachers in Chinese that has 
ever gone to the Orient? Who does not know 
Miss Miner, the brilliant author of "Two Heroes 
of Cathay" and "China's Book of Martyrs," and 
the head of your woman's college in Peking.? 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 119 

But I ought not to mention these and leave un- 
named a score of others whom you know as well 
as those I have named. Your church has done its 
share — its full share — of the preliminary work 
that brought about the fall of an old empire and 
the establishment of a stronger and more stable 
one in its place. 

Perhaps, however, you are a Baptist. Like Baptist In- 
all the others that I have mentioned we know the ^l^ence. 
great men and women who represent you on the 
field as members of the ''Jesus Church," better 
than we know them by their denominational 
name. The whole region south of the great 
Yangtze River from Hong Kong to Szechuan, 
and from Ningpo to Hanyang is being leavened 
by your influence. 

Every Southern Methodist woman is proud of Southern 
the g'irls' schools at Nanking and Kiuchiang and Methodist 

Shi 

the splendid Bible training schools in these cities ; 
of the large kindergarten and girls' school at 
Foochow, and the new v^oman's college, which 
this winter laid the corner stone of its first 
building ; of the wonderful McTiere School, 
vv^hose pupils are equal to presenting Shakespeare 
in English. 

Or perhaps you are a member of the Reformed Reformecl 
Church in America. If so then think of Abeel Church, 
and Talmage and the other great men of the 
Amoy region, who have been calling down the 
dews of heaven for the past seventy years upon 
three millions of Chinese of the Fukien Province. 



120 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Protestant 

Episcopal 

Church. 



Union Effort. 



North China 
Union. 



"To the Reformed Church God gave remarkable 
men of unbounded faith, deep piety and marked 
ability, to found its mission in China. To look 
back at their labors, to see what God hath 
wrought, is to hear the voice of our Lord and 
Master calling us to a larger faith and greater 
earnestness in hastening the completion of this 
great work." 

Or perhaps you are a churchman — English or 
American. Then you think of St. John's Uni- 
versity and Boone College and the girls' schools, 
St. Hilda's and St. Mary's, with their hundreds 
of bright girls. I have met the graduates of 
these schools in all departments of business, 
social, governmental and professional life, — in 
small numbers it is true, but not in small 
influence. 

The missionaries in China have awakened to 
the fact, which the churches at home have not 
yet realized, that they can do more work and 
better work, if they divide their territory, unite 
their educational work, and duplicate neither 
their churches nor their forces. In so far as they 
could do so they divided their territory, and they 
have united their educational work in North 
China, Shantung, Central China, West China, 
and wherever it was possible to do so. 

In North China a few years ago the American 
Board Mission had a well-developed college and 
theological school at Tung-chou, fifteen miles 
east of Peking. The Methodist Episcopal 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 121 

Mission had the Peking University which included 
a department of arts, theology and medicine, in 
the last of which the physicians of all the missions 
were engaged in teaching, and students from all 
the missions were in attendance. The London 
Mission, the Presbyterian and the English 
Church Mission did not have so well-developed 
an educational work. It was decided to unite 
and distribute the work. The American Board 
kept its college at Tung-chou ; gave its theologi- 
cal school to the Presbyterian Mission; and the 
London Mission undertook the development of a 
large medical college with which the Methodist 
united its medical department of the Peking 
University, and in which the American Board, 
Presbyterian and English Church Missions joined 
both in teachers and students. It was to the 
erection of the building for this school that the 
Empress Dowager contributed $9,000. 

A similar union was entered into in Shantung Stantung 
Province where the Presbyterians had one of the Union, 
strongest colleges in the whole empire, and where 
the English Baptists had a large school and the 
most noted museum in China. These missions 
joined with the Church of England Mission in 
that province in establishing their central union 
college at Weihsien. 

In addition to this Weihsien College there is 
the union medical college at Tsinan-fu, formed 
by the English Baptists and American Presby- 
terians and the normal training school at Tsing- 



122 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



East China 
Union. 



chou-fu, formed by the union of the same forces. 
These three institutions make up the Shantung 
Christian University, one of the most highly re- 
garded educational centers in all China, and a 
strong bulwark of Christianity. 

In East China the Christians, the Presby- 
terians and the Methodists, each of whom had 
large educational interests, decided to unite in 
educational work. This was done in connection 
with the Nanking University, and so we find 
these three denominations working not side by 
side but hand in hand, without any reference to 
sectarian bias, for the good of the Chinese people. 
The Baptists and Presbyterians, north and south, 
the Methodists north and the Christian Church 
have united in founding, equipping and manning 
the East China Union Medical College at 
Nanking. 
CentralChina., At Hankow the Northern Baptist Convention, 
the Wesleyans and the London Missionary 
Society unite to form the Union Medical College 
for training Chinese Christian physicians. 

In West China, the Province of Szechuan, the 
Friends, the Baptists, the Canadian Methodists 
and the Methodist Episcopal Churches have been 
working side by side for many years. They feel 
certain that they can trust each other to preach 
a saving gospel, and so they have divided up 
their territory wherever they can so as not to 
overlap. In their educational work they have 
united in establishing a central college or uni- 



West China 
Union. 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 123 

versity in the city of Chengtu, the capital of the 
province. A similar union is in progress in 
Foochow. 

It will readily be seen that the money con- 
tributed by the churches is being used in the way Benefits of 
to get the best results with the smallest outlay. Union. 
If our friends who are pouring so many millions 
of dollars into great, expensive plants in America, 
would only direct one or two millions a year 
toward the China Mission, and give us a fair 
opportunity to do something worth while, we can 
promise them an income ten times greater on 
their investment than they can get in America. 
If you good people at home would do as the mis- 
sionaries in China are doing, trade off church for 
church in every country village where you have 
five or six where three could do the work, and 
send the other two or three pastors to the mission 
field, you would not only bless the church abroad 
and the church at home, but you would be 
blessed yourselves. 

Then where you have too many colleges, — and 
you Americans have too many colleges in places. Study tte 
my own alma mater for example, has just com- Field, 
biaed with a sister college where they had two 
within the bounds of one conference, — combine 
forces and save funds. You could do as much 
work, with less expense, greater blessing to your- 
selves, and you could help the poor brother or 
sister who has never had a chance. Will not 



124 



CHINAS NEW DAY 



Educational 
Work Done 
by tte Mis- 
sionaries. 



American 
Metbods. 



Opportunities 
in China. 



some of my readers who are thinking of building 
or endowing a church or a college at home look 
up the matter of the foreign field, and see in 
what part of the Lord's vineyard your money 
will do the most work. 

It is a well-known fact that the educational 
work that was first opened in Japan was done 
largely by American missionaries. It is equally 
well known that the American missionaries have 
been the leaders in the educational work in 
China. The early members of the English Mis- 
sion felt that their call was to preach rather than 
to teach, and it is only within the last twenty 
years that they have discovered their mistake, so 
that practically all the leading colleges and uni- 
versities have been opened b}^ American mis- 
sionaries. 

This has done much to influence both the 
Japanese and the Chinese educational systems; 
and the public school work of both countries is 
being done for the most part after the American 
method. Not many years ago the missionaries 
from Japan urged their constituency to send 
more workers to that country else they would lose 
their opportunity. They did not heed the call, 
and they lost, for it is now too late. Japan has 
her own system. 

We have come to the same stage in the devel- 
opment of China. Never in her history have 
there been such opportunities as there are to- 
day. It was Americans that established their first 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION l"!^ 

public school systems for them. They are now 
calling for teachers, and they offer to allow our 
young Christian Chinese men and women to go 
into their schools as teachers if we will pay the 
nominal sum offroin $10 to $20 annually toward 
their support, China is calling. Shall we heed 
the call? China is stretching out her hands for 
help. Shall we help her.? Or shall we allow 
her to attempt to open her own schools, carry on 
her own work, with only Confucian teachers try- 
ing to put the new education of the West into 
the old bottles of the East. There have been 
other occasions when we have said, ''Now is the 
crucial moment." I am not going to say that. 
I want you to study the problem and see whether 
there ever was a time such as now in China. We 
lost our supreme opportunity in Japan by failing 
to grasp it when it came. Shall we do so in 
China.? 

In addition to all this work by the churches. University 
a number of the colleges and universities in Missions. 
Great Britain and the United States have taken 
up a special work of their own. Prominent 
among these are the following: — 

Harvard University has united with St. John's Harvard. 
University in Shanghai in the establishment of a 
medical department which we may hope will take 
the place in Eastern China that the union medi- 
cal college takes in the north. 

Yale University, at the close of the Boxer up- Yale, 
rising, and perhaps as the result of an inspiration 



126 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Pennsylvania 
University. 



which came from the loss of some of her noble 
graduates, decided to open amiission in Changsha 
in Hunan. This mission is well manned by 
some of her strongest graduates. 
Oberlin. Oberlin College has taken up work with the 

American Board Mission in Shansi, where she is 
doing as effective work as any of the American 
■ colleges. 

As Harvard united herself with the St. John's 
University in Shanghai, so the University of 
Pennsylvania has made herself responsible for the 
medical department in connection with the Can- 
ton Christian College ^ always affiliated more or 
less with the Presbyterian Church, though now, 
I believe, independent. 

Princeton University has sent a number of her 
best graduates to China, and has been doing a 
good deal of work in connection with the Y. M. 
C. A. of North China, and has erected a hospital 
at Paoting-fu where she lost some of her most 
noble graduates during the Boxer uprising. 

Chicago University has in mind something 
larger perhaps, than anything that has yet been 
done — the establishment of a Christian university 
in some part of China which will be liberally 
endowed and well manned. Dr. Burton was 
sent around the world with the express purpose 
of investigating conditions in China with that in 
mind. 
Oxford and A fcw ycars ago Oxford and Cambridge united 

Cambridge. in sending Lord William Cecil to China for the 



Princeton 
University. 



Chicago 
University. 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 127 

purpose of studying conditions tnere, and report- 
ing that they might know where, and what kind 
of work it might be- best to take up. It is not 
unlikely that in the near future these great English 
universities will have a college or a university in 
China as their own special representative. 

May we not hope that other colleges and uni- 
versities, and women's colleges, will take up this 
same kind of work. Wellesley, Vassar, Smith, 
Bryn Mawr, and Mt. Holyoke ought to have 
special work among women. 

May we not fail to see our opportunity in Opportunities 

China. in Education 

-n- J J T, • i.-i. i.- c^ for Women. 

l^or decades such institutions as bt. 
John's University in Shanghai, the Canton 
Christian College, the Peking University, the 
North China Union College, the Shantung Union 
College, the Nanking and Chengtu Union Col- . 
leges, the colleges at Shanghai, Soochow and ctristian 
Foochow, Boone College in Hankow and the Graduates. 
American Board College at Foochow have been 
sending out their trained graduates. Many of 
these graduates have been leaders in this great 
awakening and the anti-opium movement. 

Now they are in danger of losing this leader- 
ship unless they can keep ahead of the newly 
established government institutions, by raising p^ 
their standard of teaching and improving their Critical 
buildings and equipment. They must employ Moment, 
more and better trained teachers. They must 
erect larger and better buildings. They must be 



128 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

prepared for larger numbers and longer training 
if they are to adequately meet the increasing de- 
mand for educated youns^ men as teachers in the 
native colleges and to fill positions of responsibility 
in the new industries and civic life. 
Enlarged Graduates of Christian colleges are in great 

Equipment demand because of their superior training, de- 
Necesaary. votion and character. We must maintain this 
prestige, if we are to have our largest influence 
and effectiveness in the regeneration of China. 
More important than all else we must train "a 
native ministry capable of leading these trained 
and educated laymen, and through them to lead 
the nation into the ways of God. 

To-day is the crucial time to help these insti- 
tutions, and build up the Christian Church in 
China. 

China must be converted by converted Chinese, 
educated in these schools that have been estab- 
lished for both the boys and the girls, but you 
and I must go or send to lead these young Chinese 
people to Christ and then teach them to go. 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

" One of the notable events of the year 1911 was the 
selection of the second contingent of students to be 
sent by the government to America to study, under the 
wise provisions which the government has made for 
the use of the indemnity fund returned by America. 
Competitive examinations were held . . . nearly all 
the successful candidates in South China had been 
trained in the Christian college at Canton. " (F. W. 
Bible.) 




Bible School in Hankow with Deaconess Hart 

Protestant Episcopal 







(ra 


^ 




^^^^k|; , 






WW 


f* 


^tf*^'"^ . ^ ■ 


1 






1 w 






-^hjL . 9BH9 


lu 






ipii-'^^^i^ 


'""•^"'"'""^^'^^ 


J 


■^A^.' ggg 






1 


»;-^--;.Vv-: ;=:■>>■ 3^ .;^V 


■''^. 9^^B 




1 






r 1 


l-ws4ll^^ 




^am 


^ 
'^-^^'^H 


'' ^<^^n 


55r'^ 


^^ 


1 .,.,.|i^ -^ 


- '^I'iff'?"™'.;'^^^ 




' 




^^^^'"^■^■'T'."^^ 


K-^ 






.-.- ■ „ 




r^-i* 


'^Sfcf! 



RHfeTORicALs, Girls' School, Peking 

Woman's Board of Missions 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 129 

^^ Four thousand Chinese students are studying in 
Japan, 1,200 in the United States, and a 1,000 more in 
Europe. Under Protestant missionaries in China, over 
900 students are in college, 20,000 in preparatory and 
boarding schools, and 55,000 in day schools. In a word 
80,000 students are under Protestant Christian teaching 
in China, of whom 16,000 are girls and young women. 
In addition to missionary teachers some 700 other 
foreign teachers are employed chiefly by the govern- 
ment. Text-books of Western learning are being intro- 
duced, a single Chinese publishing house in Shanghai 
selling over a million dollars (Mexican) worth a 
year. . . . The regent has issued a decree making Eng- 
lish the official language for all scientific and technical 
instruction, and compulsory in all high schools where 
science is taught." (Bishop Bashford.) 

"The educational activities of missions in China 
have been incessant. Of the fourteen institutions of 
college grade, twelve are American, exhibiting the em- 
phasis which Americans almost invariably place upon 
this agency. The total number of pupils at present 
under instruction, in missionary colleges and schools 
in China, is 53,293. From the days of Dr. S. R. 
Brown, whose early beginnings in Macao and Hong 
Kong produced a few men who became leaders in 
China, down to the present day, the potency of this in- 
strument, upon which the perpetuation and expansion 
of the Church in China depends, has been recognized. 
The education of Chinese girls in mission schools was ' 
but yesterday regarded by nearly all Chinese with 
amusement tinged with ridicule. Yet so great is the 
change that almost before the fully developed woman's 
colleges can be acclimated in China, they have become 
the ideal of the Chinese also. It was at the especial 
command of the Empress Dowager that the imperial 
commissioners visited Wellesley College, to witness 
for themselves what has been done by and for Ameri- 



130 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

can women, and to learn what must be done in China. 
There are already signs that the impending education 
and elevation of the nearly two hundred millions of 
Chinese women will impart to the national develop- 
ment such an impetus as has never before been known ; 
and humanly speaking it will have been largely brought 
about through the work and influence of Christian 
women in China." (Dr. Arthur H. Smith in "The 
Uplift of China," p. 223.) 

"We take pleasure in bearing testimony to the part 
taken by American missionaries in promoting the 
progress of the Chinese people. They have borne the 
light of Western civilization into every nook and corner 
of the empire. The awakening of China which now 
seems to be at hand, may be traced in no small measure 
to the hands of the missionaries. For this service you 
will find China not ungrateful." (Viceroy Tuan Fang. ) 

"An interesting instance of the changed attitude 
toward women on the part of Chinese men occurred at 
the Jubilee celebration of the establishment of the 
Methodist School for Girls in Foochow. . . . The 
Fuhkien Provincial Assembly was in session and the 
general Executive Committee and officers of the Assem- 
bly were invited to be present. That every one of them 
was present was indicative of a new interest in the 
progress of woman. A young man of wealth and 
position said : — 

" 'Some time ago I was interested in establishing a 
school for girls in a neighboring city. When the 
question of teachers came up one man said, "Send to 
the Methodist Girls' School in Foochow." That was 
the first time I ever heard of the school. The ladies in 

charge sent us Miss and Miss (mentioning 

both names), and I hope every member of the Assembly 
here present will go home and establish a girls' school, 
and send here for teachers.' 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 131 

"To mention these names," wrote the principal of 
the school, ''was a terrible breach of Chinese etiquette. 
My heart stood still. When the interpreter repeated 
this address in the Foochow dialect I thought he cer- 
tainly would not repeat the names of the girls, for he 
was the Mr. Wang who had taught all new missionaries 
for twenty years that we should never speak the name 
of a Chinese woman in public, but should say, 'a cer- 
tain sister' or 'such a man's daughter, wife or sister,' 
but he did speak the names not only once but twice 
with emphasis — and then it dawned on me that in the 
new China girls and women were to have names and 
individualities." (Condensed from Margaret Burton's 
"Education of Women in China," p. 181.) 

" 'We inherit the respect for centuries accorded 
teachers,' a young American teacher in China once 
told me. The educated young Chinese women inherit 
it too, for China has proved consistent in her reverence 
for learning, and honours it in women to-day as she 
has ever honoured it in man." (Margaret Burton, in 
"Education of Women in China," p. 206.) 

"The Chinese mother is ignorant, without knowledge 
of the methods of unfolding her child's nature. She is 
ignorant of the nature of the emotions of the child, or 
their order of evolution, or their functions, or where 
use ends and abuse begins. Many an action which is 
quite normal and beneficial she continually thwarts, 
thus diminishing the child's happiness and profit, in- 
juring its temper and lessening her own power and in- 
fluence. . . but a longing, a hungering for knowledge 
fills their hearts. They realize . . . that the intel- 
lectual darkness of their own minds hinders them from 
filling satisfactorily the highest position given to mor- 
tals in this earth, that of parent — mother." (Mrs. 
Wong, a Chinese woman, in "Chinese Students' 
Monthly," December,. 1909.) 



132 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

''Endowment is the greatest need of the Christian 
colleges in Japan and China. They are now dependent 
upon the ups and downs of 'good times,' and of appro- 
priations, and have to submit to such curtailments as 
would ruin colleges in the homeland. Work that is 
worth doing at all is worth doing well, and colleges 
that are worth having at all are worth making strong. 
With all the stupendous gifts to education in America 
is it not strange that American education in the East is 
left to live a hand to mouth existence?" (Lewis, 
''Educational Conquest of the Far East," p. 205.) 

"Christian education in China will not be supplanted 
by the educational establishments of the government. 
It now exerts a distinctive and commanding influ- 
ence. . . . Christian colleges, their curricula, organi- 
zation, methods of instruction, spirit of knowledge and 
aspersions of superstition are models for the Chinese 
authorities. ... In every Liberal Arts College thus far 
started by the Chinese Government the highest positions 
entrusted to foreigners have invariably been offered to 
and urged upon missionaries. . . . Christian education 
is the government's chief source of supply of trained 
Chinese teachers. Teng Chou College furnished thir- 
teen Chinese professors, all Christians for the Imperial 
Colleges in Peking, Nanking and Shanghai in 1898. 
St. John's College provided the Government College at 
Nan Yang with three." (Ibid, pp. 205-206.) 

"A further problem is that of education. The new 
departure of the Chinese Government in educational 
lines has put an end to the practical monopoly of 
Western learning in the mission schools. Free tuition, 
and sometimes the payment of most or of all other 
expenses by the state, would seem to make competition 
hopeless; but from the absence of true normal schools, 
and from many other causes, the teaching standards of 
the former must for some time remain below those of 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 133 

the latter. The worship of Confucius in many govern- 
ment schools excludes, and is intended to exclude, 
Christians. In the government schools especially there 
is a strong impulse to meddle with public affairs, not 
only by free discussion, but by sending telegrams direct 
to the foreign office (an unheard of thing in the past), 
suggesting and protesting. In a recent instance a large 
body of Shan-hsi students demanded the cancellation of 
a mining concession formerly given to an Anglo- 
Italian syndicate. One of their number threw himself 
into the ocean and drowned himself as a gentle protest, 
thus becoming a martyr whose fame is now celebrated 
and in whose honor fiery resolutions are passed. There 
is a constant and an increasing danger that young 
Chinese reject the moral teachings and the wise re- 
straints of the past, and drift into a theoretical skep- 
ticism combined with an epicurean license. Many of 
the 16,000 students at present in Japan return with an 
imperfect knowledge of that language, a smattering of 
many branches of learning, their self-conceit estab- 
lished and their morals undermined." (Arthur H. 
Smith in "The Uplift of China," p. 189.) 

''Sometimes the pendulum of progress swings almost 
too far. Two day pupils in another school have adopted 
things Western in a wholesale style. When they ap- 
plied for admission they were in full European dress. 
They had no Chinese education and did not care for it; 
they wanted English and music. They could read some 
English, which they could not understand ; neither 
could the teachers, as they read it. They could play 
'Jesus Loves Me' and 'Peter Piper.' The missionaries 
gave them the best advice possible, some of which was 
that they wear their native dress. In a few days they 
returned, asking that they might come to school in their 
foreign clothes as they had no others. The request was 
refused, but in about ten days they appeared again, 
transformed by their becoming Chinese dress. 



134 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

"Another pupil has gained the nickname 'Puss in 
Boots/ because she has her little old-style feet encased 
in new-style velveteen boots. She is not only fashion- 
ably dressed but is also saturated with cigarette smoke 
— a too progressive type! 

''It is said that now there is not a prince's palace or 
an official's home where the girls are not studying; 
that now a woman is ashamed if she cannot read, 
whereas formerly it was held to be a matter of little 
importance. 

"The government schools require the pupils to re- 
frain from wearing ornaments or artificial flowers, and 
from using paint or powder. The hair is simply 
braided or coiled in a Japanese knot. They wear a sort 
of uniform, usually a plain black or dark blue gar- 
ment." (Methodist Leaflet. ) 

"China, too, is feeling the stir of modern progress, 
and is slowly awaking to the fact that girls are worth 
educating. 'What pretty faces some of these Peking 
girls have!' exclaimed a lady, looking at a photograph 
of a group of graduates. 'Oh! yes,' was the reply. 
'Didn't you know that Chinese girls often have pretty 
faces?' But they have more than this. The warm 
hearts and bright minds that make any group of Ameri- 
can girls a charming sight, are found in China as well, 
and the missionaries have had a great deal to do with 
such beauty making. 

"At our Peking school the greatest event of the year 
is the graduation. The chapel is beautifully decorated 
with flowers and branches of trees, and an attractive 
program is prepared. 

"Mrs. 's report of a recent Commencement 

says: 'The girls came upon the platform with composed 
dignity, and gave their essays without any indication 
of flight or faint. ' Of course they did! This is the 
well-bred 'new woman' of China. 'It was a glimpse of 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION \?>h 

the current of progress that is setting forward here, and 
it will have much to do with the re-making of China. 
The Chinese are waking up to the fact that to have a 
strong nation there must be strong women, and that 
crippled mothers cannot produce a nation of strong 
men.' 

*'A delightful feature of the Commencement exercises 
at the Foochow girls' school was an address to the 
graduating class by Dr. Hii King Eng. The spectacle 
of an educated Chinese doctor addressing her young 
country women on such an occasion, is of far-reaching 
significance. At the Kucheng school, the well-prepared 
essays were given on the following topics: 'China's 
Noted Women,' 'The Superior Advantages of Girls 
Attending Christian Schools,' 'Knowledge is Power,' 
'How the Gospel has Benefited Chinese Women,' 'Our 
Debt of Gratitude to God.' How like and yet how 
unlike our own Commencement themes this sounds!" 
(Methodist Leaflet.) 

"The school day begins with the daylight, for the 
girls are early risers. With the first streak of dawn 
the blue cotton cocoons unroll and the black eyes are 
wide awake. When this one cotton bed covering is 
folded at the side of the bed, the bed is made. Dress- 
ing as quickly follows, for a pair of trousers, an upper 
garment, a pair of embroidered slippers are easily 
donned, but the hair takes time. The girls tiptoe into 
the broad hall and silently, by the dim light of a lan- 
tern, make their toilets. The hair is oiled and combed 
until perfectly smooth and glossy, then braided or 
beautifully coiled, and decorated with bright flowers. 
The older pupils help the younger ones and often the 
most wonderful creations of hair bows and butterflies 
appear on the little round heads. 

*'The six o'clock bell loosens the tongues, opens the 
windows, and ushers in the day. At intervals of fifteen 
minutes bells call the girls down by classes to small 



136 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

wooden tubs of hot water ready in the outer court. 
After the bath, the frugal souls, economical of time and 
the hot water remaining, will hurry to the washtubs and 
the bamboo poles in the yard will be clothed upon 
by a bright array of freshly washed, stiffly stretched gar- 
ments before the seven o'clock breakfast bell»rings. 

''Then the great tub of rice is carried into the dining 
room, a dish each of dried fish, sour vegetable, bean- 
curd cakes, and fragrant oil are placed in the center of 
each table, and after they have sung grace, the activi- 
ties begin. One girl will consume three bowls of rice 
in three times three minutes and not fail of her share 
of the good things in the center dishes! This does not 
unfit her for her domestic duties, but armed with the 
broom, dustpan or duster which bears her name she 
will do her share of the daily house cleaning so faith- 
fully, that she has no fear of the inspectors, who go 
about at eight o'clock to see that all is complete. 

"After this the big schoolroom is quiet half an hour 
for the 'Morning Watch,' and as the time coincides 
with the hour for evening prayer in the churches of 
America, surely the Christians at home will be glad to 
remember at the Throne of Grace the little Christians 
praying in China. At nine o'clock the three men 
teachers coming from their homes in the city, walk in 
in single file, in long blue cotton gowns, and much 
dignity. They conduct prayers with the assembled 
girls, teachers and helpers, and the school work of the 
day begins. Classes move regularly with singing and 
gymnastics for rest periods, and one and one-half hours 
for dinner, dish washing and play at noon. At four, 
the ofiicers of the 'School city' meet for business. 
The policemen bring in all who have broken rules 
during the day, the court sits in judgment, and the girl 
who has said naughty words, has been noisy at table, 
or who has run down the long stairs, must do penance 



AN EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION 137 

by washing a window, walking about quietly, or sitting 
in meditation. 

''Washing clothes, making shoes, play and supper 
fill the time until 6.30, when the older girls sit with 
groups of the smaller girls and help them understand 
the hard characters until time for evening prayers. 
Then comes the early bedtime, — the younger girls going 
at 7 and the older ones an hour later." (Harriet 
Osborne. ) 

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. What features in China's history make education 
of supreme importance? 

2. Compare the Chinese educational revolution with 
that of Japan as to causes, leadership, methods, magni- 
tude. 

3. What factors make outside help necessary to China 
if she is to successfully make the great transformation 
of her schools? 

4. What is the relative importance of the education 
of girls in China? 

5. What do you consider the greatest educational 
opportunity in China? the greatest educational need? 

6. Are the college women of America doing their 
share in promoting the higher education of Chinese 
women? 

7. What do you consider the fundamental defects in 
China's old educational system? 

8. If you had ^500,000 to spend on education in China 
how and where would you spend it? 

9. What is the most pressing educational problem in 
China now before your denominational Board? 

10. What are the strong and what the weak features 
of the educational work of your Board in China? 

11. What kind of a Chinese church are you training? 



CHAPTER IV 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 



If ever the renewed China shall be realized it 
must be the work of a living church of Chinese 
Christians. An army of German, English, 
French and American missionaries cannot Chris- 
tianize China. The beautiful words of Charlotte 
Tucker spoken of missionary work in India are 
true everywhere: "We are only coolies who open 
the door, they go in themselves." 
Aim of It is the aim of this present chapter to sketch 

Chapter. on a background of the inadequate native faiths a 

picture of the quality and activities of the Chinese 
Christian church, and to make clear the part 
which the American churches are having in has- 
tening its development. 
Native Re- In '^Rex Christus" we learned the history and 

ligions. work of the Christian Church in China up to 

the beginning of the twentieth century. We 
learned of the three religions of China, — Confu- 
cianism, Buddhism and Taoism. We learned 
that Confucius neither claimed to know anything 
about death nor about God. When asked about 
God he said, ''I do not know man, how can I 
know God?" When asked about death, he also 
said, "I do not know life, how can I know 



THE Chinese church 139 

death?" But he taught the people to reverence 
and pay the highest respect — even worship 
— toward their ancestors, and so we call it a 
religion. 

It is, however, only a system of morality, the Confucianism 
difference being- that it claims to be a relation a System of 
of man to man, while religion is the relation of °" ^^' 
man to God. Confucianism may be considered 
the world's greatest system of agnosticism. 

Buddhism, on the other hand, while without a Buddkism. 
belief in a personal God, is a religion, and it is 
because of its religious ideals that it acquired 
such a hold upon the hearts and lives of the 
Chinese people. What Confucianism undertook 
to do for the intellectual nature of the Chinese, 
Buddhism undertook to do for their spiritual 
nature. 

Taoism began as a religious philosophy. It Taoism, 
developed, however, into a sort of pseudo-scien- 
tific system, dealing with astrology, or the study 
of the stars, planets and heavenly bodies as they 
related to or governed the events of human life. 
Taoists devoted themselves to the study of 
alchemy, — the ancestor of chemistry, — and spent 
a large part of their time for two centuries before, 
and two centuries after Christ, to an effort to dis- 
cover the elixir of life, and a method by which 
they might transform cinnabar into gold. 

Now the question arises was Confucianism a Was Confu- 
success as an educational and moral system. And ciamsmaSuc- 
our answer would be, as compared with all other ^^^^ ' 



140 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

non-Christian systems, a decided yes. It de- 
veloped the two governments that have stood 
longer than any other governments that the world 
has to-day, China and Japan. Shall we say that 
this was because they followed the command, 
"Honor thy father and mother that thy days may 
be long in the land which the Lord thv God 
giveth thee"? Whatever may have been the 
reason, they have stood the test of time until 
they came up against the Christian governments, 
when they would have fallen but for the fact that 
they were allowed to remain. Was Confucianism 
a success as an educational system compared with 
Christianity? Let the Chinese answer, — nay. 
The Chinese and the Japanese have both answered 
that question, for both of these Oriental peoples 
have discarded their old educational systems of 
their own accord — China during the last decade 
— for that inspired by the gospel and developed 
first by the church, and later by Christian gov- 
ernments. 

Was Bud- Was Buddhism a success as a religious system? 

dkism a Sue- Let the poverty, the ignorance, the weakness and 
the immorality of all the Buddhist countries 
testify. What do we hear, year after year from 
the countries where Buddhism prevails, — plenty 
or poverty? Are we not sending to China year 
after year great quantities of flour because of 
famine and poverty? Are not famine and poverty 
because of ignorance? Now why is it that we 
seldom hear of famine among Christian nations? 



,7 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 141 

There must be about the gospel something which 
inspires men to learn, leads them" to discover the 
wealth that God has hid away in the earth and 
enables them to get it out. Try to work out a 
theory of your own as to why the Christian 
countries are wealthy, prosperous, intelligent, 
progressive, with so many comforts in life, and 
why the Buddhist lands are without these things, 
and then ask yourself why should I believe in 
esoteric Buddhism while I live in a land with a 
Bible? 



The Buddtist 



The Buddhist priests are ignorant, and in some 
of the temples have all the foulness of early 
Corinth; and even the children ridicule them in 
their nursery rhymes, for they say: — 

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, little girl fair^ 

There's a priest in the temple without any hair, 

You take a tile and I'll take a brick, 

And we'll hit the priest in the back of the neck. 

Have the Taoists been a success as scientists? ^^^ Taoism 
China has never made a real science. In all her ^ ^"^ceas. 
implements she is as primitive as her ancestors 
of a thousand years ago. Her plow is a forked 
stick tipped with a piece of metal which only 
roots up the thin surface soil. Her harrow is a 
brush pile dragged over the field. She has never 
made a cradle or a scythe, but pulls her wheat or 
cuts it with a sickle and thrashes it with a rolling 
stone. Her drill is a gourd, with a bamboo 
attached to the neck, which the farmer rat-a-tap- 
taps as he goes along the furrow drilling one row 



142 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Gospel In- 
fluence. 



The Chinese 
Church. 



Heroism of 

the Mission- 



of wheat at a time. Her sawmill is nothing but 
two men and a crosscut bucksaw. Up to the be- 
ginning of the twentieth century her best black- 
smith had never made a decent nail. Given that 
condition of things after twenty-four hundred 
years of Taoism's scientific theories, about when 
in the history of the world would she be able to 
build a railroad? Her three religions therefore 
have all failed — each in its own specialty. What 
now has the gospel done during the century in 
which it has been preached in China? 

When the gospel found China she was a closed 
land, — asleep. She is now awake. What of the 
influence of the church in that awaking? 

For about ninety years before the Boxer move- 
ment the Protestant Church had been at work in 
China. During the earlier decades the process 
of planting a Chinese church was very slow and 
difficult. In 1842 there were but six known 
Chinese Christians to show for thirty-five years 
of work. Ten years later there were 350; by 
1865 there were 2, 000. In ten years these num- 
bers had risen to 13,515 and by the end of the 
century to 100,000. 

The heroism of the missionaries whose unno- 
ticed toil had gathered these multitudes will 
never be duly appreciated. In spite of ostracism, 
misunderstanding, suspicion, under the terrible 
isolation of their lives, amid the discouraging 
stolidity and apparent immobility of their Chinese 
neighbors they gave their testimony, sealing it 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 143 

often with their blood. The Chinese church is 
their memorial. 

For years tourists skeptically inclined taunted Quality of 
the missionaries with the unreality of their con- Chinese 
quest. "Rice Christians" they called the Chinese ^^l^"^*^^^^- 
church contemptuously, meaning that they pro- 
fessed Christianity only to get rice, to secure 
some temporal advantage. Well, patiently, little 
by little, in scattered groups all over the empire, 
the missionaries had gathered one hundred thou- 
sand of these despised rice Christians, — most of 
them it is true from the humbler classes of the 
people. Then came the terrible upheaval of the 
Boxer outbreak. Churches were torn down, mis- 
sion premises burned, the Christians hunted like 
wild beasts. They were led out for execution, 
a rude cross was drawn on the ground, — they 
were promised immunity if by trampling on it 
they would renounce the Christian faith. In the 
face of certain death by cruel torture at least t^n 
thousand (some authorities put the figures mu..: 
higher) chose death before disloyalty. 

Did ever an infant church endure persecution 
with more steadfast faith? Pastor Meng of 
Paoting-fu, a direct descendant of Mencius, was 
away from home in safety when the outbreak 
came. He hurried back the one hoandred and 
twenty miles to die with his flock. He met cruel 
scourgings, and burnings in a vain effort to make 
him recant, and was at last beheaded. 

A Chinese preacher was beaten on the bare 



144 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Effects of 
Heroism. 



Generosity of 

Ckinese 

Church. 



back with one hundred blows, then bidden to 
choose between apostasy and another hundred 
blows. Half dead he gasped, ''I value Jesus 
Christ more than life, and I will never deny 
him." When merciful unconsciousness came 
he was left for dead, but a friend took him secretly 
and nursed his wounds and he recovered, and to- 
day bears about in his happy body the marks of 
the Lord Jesus. 

Time would fail to tell of poor widows dragged 
through the streets, of the voices of Chinese 
children who during the deadly terror of the 
siege of Peking, amid screaming shells and the 
roar of burning buildings, were heard singing, 
^'There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes" ; 
of old men and maidens, fathers and mothers, 
entire churches who counted not their lives dear 
to themselves. 

The effects of such heroism were seen imme- 
diately after the rebellion. The practical Chinese 
wanted a religion that had such power over the 
lives of its followers, and in the ten years which 
have followed the churches have grown as never 
before. The ninety thousand left at the end of 
the Boxer rebellion number two hundred and fifty 
thousand to-day. 

Not less notable than its steadfastness is the 
generosity of the Chinese church. In 1903 they 
gave for church work $2.50 per capita. When it 
is considered that the great majority of these 
Christians were humble folk with incomes run- 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 145 

ning from $5 to $15 a month, it is evident that 
their gifts were far greater proportionately than 
those of American Christians. Some of the 
stories of their devotion are very touching: poor 
farmers in Tukon rented a piece of land and 
worked it in co-operation for the Lord's work; 
schoolgirls went without breakfast and gave the 
money to the church ; college students accepted as 
pastors a pittance when as officials they might 
have had affluence — Chinese affluence, $100 in- 
stead of $5 monthly. 

When one young man finished his course in 
college he began teaching in the mission for a 
salary of five dollars a month, refusing one of 
twenty-five which would soon have been advanced 
to one hundred a month. While he was teaching 
for five dollars he had an opportunity to teach Li 
Hung Chang's grandsons English an hour a day 
for thirty dollars a month. He did this extra 
work and gave the thirty dollars each month to 
the school to support a boy in college for a year. 

Testimony to the quality of missionary work Testimony of 
and the solidity of the Chinese Christianity is Col. Charles 
abundant on the part of those who have had ■^^^■'y- 
longest and closest opportunity to observe. Col. 
Charles Denby, former American Ambassador, 
says: — 

I made a study of missionary work in China. I took 
a man-of-war and visited almost every open port in 
the empire. At each of these places I visited and in- 
spected every mission station. At the schools the 



146 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

scholars were arrayed before me and examined. I went 
through the missionary hospitals. I attended synods 
and church services. I saw the missionaries, ladies and 
gentlemen in their homes. I unqualifiedly and in the 
strongest language that tongue can utter, give to these 
men and women who are living and dying in China and 
in the far East my full and unadulterated commenda- 
tion. In China the missionaries are the leaders in 
every charitable work. They give to the natives largely 
out of their scanty earnings, and they honestly admin- 
ister the alms of others. When famine arrives, — and it 
comes every year, — or the rivers inundate the soil with 
never ceasing frequency, the missionary is the first and 
last to give his time and labor to alleviate suffering. 
They are the writers of books for the Chinese. They 
are the interpreters for them and the legations. The 
first graduates of the finest Western colleges supply and 
practice surgery, — an unknown art among the Chinese. 

W. J.. Bryan's When Mr. William Jennings Bryan took a trip 
Testimony. around the world, I had the pleasure of entertain- 
ing him at dinner in my own home in Peking, 
and of showing him about the city. He gave the 
Thanksgiving address in the home of Dr. H. H. 
Lowry, to which all Americans were invited, and 
he visited and carefully inspected every mission 
in the vicinity of which he happened to be. 
When he had arrived in India he wrote me the 
following letter: — 

My dear Dr. Headland : — 

I am interested in the work of your girls' school in 
Peking and am anxious to know what it costs to sup- 
port a girl for a year. Will you kindly write me in 
Cairo, Egypt, giving me the necessary information. 
Sincerely, 

William Jennings Bryan. 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 147 

I wrote at once saying that it cost $30 a year to 
put a girl through the girls* high school, or a 
boy through the college. He wrote me from 
Egypt saying, "Draw on me until further notice 
for the support of a girl in the girls' high 
school." I had the pleasure of introducing Mr. 
Bryan at Bay View, Mich., when he gave his 
wonderful lecture on the "Prince of Peace," and 
after the lecture he told me that he took up eight 
boys and girls in different mission fields, all of 
whom he is supporting until the present time. 
Such testimony from such a man is worth a good 
deal more than that of the tourist who never 
visits the inissions. 

During the past ten years there has been a Advance in 
steady advimce in all kinds of church work, Churcli 

W7 It 

while in particular lines the work has been going 
forward with remarkable rapidity. We are told 
by the Congregational report on general work 
that the year 1910-11 "has been marked in sev- 
eral stations by a great advance in the idea of 
self-support and responsibility for the church as 
a Chinese church. The outcome of this move- 
ment has been most striking in Tientsin. ' The 
general policy of the station, as outlined a year 
ago, has been to place responsibility upon the 
Chinese leaders. Plans for the general work are 
made in consultation with them, and the Chris- 
tians in several centers are expected to assume 
local self-control as soon as they are able to do 
so. Aparticular feature of this readiness has been 



148 



CHINA'S NEW DAY 



Union 
Ckurck. 



evident in the attitude of the Tientsin students in 
the theological and arts colleges; they have 
evinced a deep interest in the w^elfare of the 
church and station vs^hich has been of marked as- 
sistance. One of these students has been devoting 
himself to the task of arousing the activity of the 
church." 

As a result of this movement there has been 
developed a self-directing, independent, union 
church in that city. "The society," continues 
the report, "has called a pastor, a man of ex- 
perience in the Methodist Mission." Now isn't 
it refreshing to find a lot of young and old, new 
Chinese Congregational Christians calling a 
Methodist pastor. 

Dr. Baker of the South China Mission of the 
Baptist women writes: — 



A Young 

Woman 

Evangelist. 



The great spiritual atvakeniiig which manifested it- 
self a year ago in South China, and which was, humanly 
speaking, under the leadership of Miss Yu^ that wonder- 
ful Chinese evangelist, has spread to various parts of 
the empire. She is a member of the Methodist Church 
but is not under their Board, as she prefers to be en- 
tirely, free to go where the Spirit leads her. She has 
opened a home in Shanghai called the Bible School and 
Prayer Home. Here she holds herself in readiness to 
talk and pray with any who come to her. That is the 
way she began her work in the first place, just waiting 
at home ; for it is contrary to all Chinese customs for 
a young, unmarried woman to go about the streets and 
into the homes. So she said she knew that if the Lord 
had some work for her to do he would send it to her. 
It was not long before her room was found by those 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 149 

wishing spiritual help, and her time was more than 
taken. She is such a quiet, modest little woman, but 
speaks with the very power of the Spirit. In all her 
work there seems to be no dependence upon self, but an 
acknowledging of God's hand in it all, and a waiting 
upon him for guidance in every affair. I know of no' 
other Chinese woman who has been so used. 

Since Miss Yu's parents are both dead, and her elder 
brother says she can do as she likes, there has been no 
relative to enforce a marriage, as is the case usually. 
Several fine young Christian men have wished to marry 
her, but she says that it is not the will of the Lord for 
her. It is so very unusual that the Chinese would 
criticise her severely but for her beautiful Christian 
character, which offsets any tendency to gossip. 

Turn to the report of the Christian (Disciples) christian Co- 
Church in Central China and you find them em- operation, 
phasizing the same phases of work as the Con- 
gregationalists in the north. The report from 
Chuchou tells us: — 

Three things have been emphasized: Chinese leader- 
ship, co-operation among the Christians, and modern 
Bible-study methods of teaching. With the exception 
of the time for communion service, the entire Lord's 
Day morning has been given up to the work of the 
Bible school. The evangelists at the out-stations have 
likewise made the lesson the center of the Sunday serv- 
ice. Self-support has been on the increase; subscrip- 
tions at the annual convention nearly doubled those of 
any single previous year. 

The Chinese Church cannot fulfill its glorious Needs of tke 
mission as the creator of the new China unless Ckurch. 
its nurture is as carefully planned as its planting. 
For the American Christian to feel that his work 



150 CHINAS NEW DAT 

is done would be a fatal error. The next twenty 
years are critical, they demand an outpouring of 
life and treasure such as has not been known. 
First, tte Kin- In China, as elsewhere, the child is the key to 
dergartens. |-]^g situation, and Jesus is the discoverer of the 
child. An evidence of the recognition of the 
importance of claiming the children is the up- 
springing of kindergartens everywhere. 

We are told by the ''Missionary Intelligencer" 
of Shanghai : — 

A kindergarten for the tiny Chinese boys and girls 
was opened early in the year, with Mrs. Shaw in charge. 
This work is new to the Chinese, and not very well 
understood by them, so it was most encouraging to 
have ten little tots make their appearance. From the 
first they were so interested in their work they could 
scarcely be induced to go home, and now the number 
has increased to eighteen, all that can be accommo- 
dated. The mornings are devoted to regular kindergar- 
ten work, and in the afternoon the children receive in- 
struction in the easy Chinese characters. 

Woman a This is true not only of the work of the mission 

Board of Mis- of the Christian Church in Shanghai but of other 
sions. missions in other cities as well. Plans for a union 

kindergarten to be supported and taught by workers 
of different denominations who will combine for 
this effort, are already maturing. It is expected 
that the outcome will be a kindergarten of the 
highest grade possible to provide for the Foochow 
Mission, from which trained Chinese workers 
will be sent out to spread this beneficent work 
among children. The kindergarten which up to 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 151 

this time has been the work of the Methodist 
Woman's Board, has enrolled over fifty mem- 
bers, — a happy flock who have profited greatly 
by the instruction received and have carried the 
influence into many homes. At the Christmas 
entertainment given in the kindergarten a model 
of Foochow City was built by the little people 
by the use of blocks. This was a source of 
great wonder and interest to the older people who 
came to look on. 

This work, however, is often carried on with Soutkern 
great difficulty because of lack of funds. Many Baptist. 
of the kindergartens are begun because of a 
deeply felt need of the neighborhood, and when 
the thing is well started the ladies find themselves 
compelled to close the school. Notice the fol- 
lowing from the Southern Baptist women's 
report: — 

This work has been in charge of Mrs. Snuggs. 
Owing to having no suitable building and other difficul- 
ties, the normal kindergarten, started in a hired build- 
ing, had to be discontinued the last half of the year. 
In one of the Tung Shan Church class rooms a daily 
and Sunday kindergarten has been held, with an enroll- 
ment of thirty-five and an average attendance of twenty- 
eight. Five of the pupils have been baptized. This is 
a new but very important branch of the work. What 
better time than young childhood can be had for im- 
pressing a child's mind and heart? For real success 
this work needs a suitable building. 

For a long time the American Bo^rd Mission American 
had been planning for kindergarten work and Board. 



152 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

carrying it on as best they could. But in 1910 
Miss Yanderslice, the long-looked-f or kindergart- 
ner, arrived in Peking. There is a growing sense 
of the importance of this training, not only in 
Christian circles, but throughout the city. Mrs. 
Stelle, who organized this work in Peking, has 
had a number of calls from young men who were 
looking into the subject. One of these, Mr. 
Yen, son of the President of the Board of Educa- 
tion, has a private school for the training of 
kindergartners. The Peking kindergarten was 
opened in October with an enrollment of thirty- 
five. The Pangkiachuang kindergarten is under 
the care of a former schoolgirl, who had but a 
year and a half of training in Peking. She has 
grown with her work and her love has won love 
with beautiful results upon the twelve little 
people who are her special charge. 
Social Influ- The teaching of the children in the kindergar- 

ence of CLil- ten and the small schools . has important social 
drens Work, influences on the community. In our own part 
of the city, when we went out for a walk, the 
children would come out of their gate, stare at us 
with a frightened look on their faces, and then 
turn and run saying in a frightened tone, "The 
devil's coming." After we had taught them in 
the Sunday school and day schools, when they 
saw us coming they would call out, ''Teacher, 
when is the Sabbath day?" 

Pathetic conditions, however, arise in many of 
these schools and kindergartens. One of these 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 153 

is seen in the report of Miss Lochie Rankin in 
her report to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. She says: — 

During the year just passed one vexing problem has Needs, 
sadly interfered with our plans for model class work 
— viz., how to seat eighty girls in rooms where fifty 
Avere barely comfortable. Buoyed by the hope that 
something would be done when the Bishop came to give 
at least some promise of relief, we improvised class 
rooms, using the veranda and summer house. But 
" 'twas not wisely done." It was all very well in fair 
weather; but when the rain and frost drove all indoors, 
teachers and pupils suffered to such an extent that it 
seems best to limit the number of pupils in Memphis 
School to fifty until one more class room is added to 
the present building. 

Are we to leave our day schools without build- 
ings, without teachers, without funds at this 
critical moment when girls are crowding into our 
presence. For years we have been praying that 
the doors would open, shall we pray now for door- 
keepers to keep them shut, or shall we provide 
for their wider opening.^ 

When missionary work began in China atten- Second, Bible 
tion was quite naturally concentrated upon the Women, 
men. Women were for the most part illiterate. 
Chinese customs did not permit them to sit in 
mixed assemblages; it was difficult for men to 
reach them with the gospel message The result 
was an undue proportion of men in the member- 
ship of the churches. A few years ago. Bishop 
Bashford, noting the few women enrolled as 
church members, felt that many cases of arrested 
development in the Christian life of men, and 



154 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



The Character 
oi Chinese 
Bible 
^Voman. 



many cases of lapses in the second generation, 
could be traced to the failure to reach the women. 
He began systematically to promote the evangeli- 
zation of women by women evangelists and the 
further training and equipment of the Chinese 
Bible women as among the most important fac- 
tors in the Christianizing of China. The Meth- 
odists have been among the leaders in the emphasis 
of training classes and schools for Bible women, 
but all denominations are now appreciating the 
strategic importance of the Bible woman, and the 
necessity for her better and more thorough prepara- 
tion for her work. 

I do not know of any subject that I should 
rather study thoroughly than the Chinese Bible 
woman, just for a study in sociology. There is 
about the Chinese Bible woman all the interest 
that there is to the Southerner in the old 
* 'mammy" of the slave days. But in addition 
she is a preacher, a teacher, a nurse, a mother, 
a prophetess in the community, — in many cases a 
heroine, and in almost every instance a widow 
for whom there is, according to Chinese ideas of 
propriety, no second marriage. We are told in 
the books for girls, in the enumeration of a wife's 
virtues: — 

Tenth and last that I would offer 

Is, be cautioned all your life; 
Once you marry 'tis forever, 

Once you may become a wife. 
Three dependencies, four virtues, 

Let them all be perfect, then 
Who can say that mongst our women, 

There are no "superior men"? 



THE CHINESE CHURCH .155 

Many of these Bible women are chiln izus^ 
'^superior men" or sages, as it is usually trans- 
lated in the classics. Every mission has them. 
I venture to assert that it would be difficult to 
find a mission that had been established for a 
dozen, or a score of years, in China that did not 
have its Bible woman, who was one of the char- 
acters of the city, town or neighborhood, and 
always a blessing to Christians and non-Christians 
alike. 

Take for instance 

Aunt HiAN Tte Story of 

of the Reformed Church as told by Miss Nellie Aunt Hian. 

Zwemer. She says: — 

The first time 1 saw Aunt Hian was nearly fourteen 
years ago at our Taw-kio Chapel. After the woman's 
meeting I announced that our class for women would 
open the next Monday, and I invited all who wished to 
learn to read and understand the way of salvation to let 
me know if they could come. Aunt Hian was then 
nearly seventy years old, a tall, thin woman with a 
bright face, but half-closed sore eyes. She prostrated 
herself before me as she would before an idol and 
begged to be allowed to come to our class. After I 
had persuaded her to rise, I told her I feared she was 
too old and her eyesight too poor to learn to read, but 
if she came to church and listened well and learned to 
pray that would do for her. But on Monday forenoon 
Aunt Hian appeared. She had walked a long distance, 
and was so determined to stay that I let her remain, 
thinking it would help her to listen for a few days to 
the Bible lessons and to learn a few texts and hymns, 
but she was not content with that, and wanted a primer 
so that she, too, could learn to read "God's letter," as 



156 CHINAS NEW DAT 

she had heard some one call the Bible. I gave her the 
primer to humor her, but did not intend to spend much 
time teaching her. She, however, always stood at my 
side when I taught others, and to my surprise knew her 
lessons as well as anyone. She always studied aloud, 
and when she came to a difficult word would kneel and 
say, "This is too hard for me. Holy Spirit, help me 
remember." Often at six in the morning I would hear 
her spell her lesson as she sat on the church steps below 
my window. 

We have a little book called ''Daily Manna," which 
has a Bible text, a short explanation of it, and a short 
prayer on each page. When she had finished her primer 
I helped her spell the words of the first text, and then 
showed her the book and told her to read, which she 
did well. Then I said, ''Now you have read part of 
'God's letter. ' This is a verse from the Bible." Her 
joy and gratitude touched and rebuked me, who had 
been able to read God's Word all these years. She knelt 
on the floor and most fervently thanked God for helping 
her to learn to read. She made rapid progress after 
that, and besides her New Testament she has read many 
other books, and she reads well. 

One of the pictures I love to store in my memory 
is seeing her one day, when I passed through her vil- 
lage, sitting in her doorway reading one of Christ's 
parables to a group of heathen children. 

Or who of all the members of the Woman's 

Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist 

Church does not know 

Old Mother Wang, 

Old Mother of the little village of Anchia, in Shantung? 

^"^* Now the name Wang is as common in China as 

Smith is in America, and yet there is but one 

''Old Mother Wang" to any Methodist woman. 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 157 

Her husband, a graduate of the first degree, 
went to Peking to get his second. Failing in 
this, he dropped into the street chapel and was 
converted. He became a chapel keeper, a 
preacher, and in a few months took a cartload of 
Christian books and returned home. He began 
preaching and selling books. His first work, 
however, was with his own family, for he held 
that if he could not get them to believe, he could 
not persuade his neighbors to accept the doctrine. 

He had family prayers. He could not sing so 
he read the hymns. Once while reading, — 

Ye who seek the throne of grace 
Do not delay, 

Mrs. Wang understood it to mean, for the sounds 
were the same, do not use tobacco. She smoked. 
Almost all Chinese women do. But she said to 
herself, if I can't smoke and go to heaven I'll 
put away my pipe. She concluded also that 
what was good for her was good for her neigh- 
bors, and she induced them to give up their 
pipes, and gathering some fuel they had a bonfire. 

Her husband being a consumptive lived only 
three years after he was converted, but in that 
time he had established the church in his own 
home as well as in many of the surrounding vil- 
lages. After his death Mrs. Wang went to her 
son and said, "I am going to Peking to study in 
the woman's training school and then come back 
and take up your father's work." 

He took her to Peking, and, while she studied 



158 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

with the women, he was at work in the boys' 
school. 

One day she inquired of the gatekeeper the 
pronunciation of a certain Chinese character. 

*^Why that is Wang yowx own name," he ans- 
wered. "You are too old and stupid to learn," 
he continued. And Mrs. Wang added, "I 
thought 1 was." 

But she was so diligent that in two years she 
could read the Gospels, and she ordered the boy 
to take her home. 

They started in a Chinese cart, but before they 
had gone ten miles the cart upset, the old woman 
became frightened, and would not get in the 
cart again. 
A Wheel- The son dismissed the cart, hired a wheelbar- 

barrow Ride, j-qw, put his mother on one side, their bedding 
and clothing on the other, and wheeled her four 
hundred miles to her home, in order that she 
might take up her husband's work. 

For thirty years or more she has been going 
about among the country villages selling books, 
preaching and teaching the women, and when she 
was eighty years old she made the trip from Shan- 
tung to Peking, a distance of four hundred miles, 
in a Chinese cart to ask Mrs. Headland to take 
her in and let her preach to the Empress Dowager. 

"Because," she said, and her hands shook as 
her voice did, "because I am so old, it may be 
the Empress Dowager will listen to the gospel 
from my lips." 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 159 

But it was not possible to take her in, as no 
Chinese woman was allowed at the Manchu 
Court, and Mother Wang had to return disap- 
pointed to her home. 

A few years ago when Miss Clara Cushman 
returned to China after an absence of nearly 
twenty years she cabled Old Mother Wang not to 
go to heaven till she arrived. And the old 
woman waited. And the next picture that came 
back from China was Clara Cushman, seated on 
the ground at the feet of Old Mother Wang. 

They are good old saints — many of these Bible 
women ! 

One of the places where the Bible women are Bible Women 
indispensable is in the Sunday schools. All the ^^ Sunday 
larger girls and boys of the schools and colleges 
are used as teachers, and are thus trained for 
Christian work, when they have completed their 
studies. It is a Bible training school in which 
they are taught to sing, pray, preach and teach, 
and help others to do the same, and the most im- 
portant of all is the help they give to the others. 
It fixes the facts in their own minds, teaches 
them how to impart them, and gives them a taste 
of a profession. Better than this, they are often 
instrumental in leading their schoolmates or 
others to a knowledge of salvation. 

The third need of the Chinese church is the Ttird, the 
strengthening of the Sunday school, particularly Sunday 
as an evangelistic agency. In too many cases the School. 
Sunday school has been maintained as a church 



160 CHINAS NEW DAI 

agency largely for the nurture of the children of 
Christian parents. It is capable of far wider uses, 
already being tried in several instances. For 
example here is the story of one. 
A Heathen A dozcn little children wandered into the 

Sunday regular morning Sunday school. Being too ig- 

norant to go into the regular classes they were 
taken by the ladies into a little room not con- 
nected with the church, and given a picture card, 
over the advertisement on the back of which they 
had pasted a sheet on which were the Ten Com- 
mandments. The children were promised that 
when they had learned them they would ^qX. 
another card. 

The next Sunday they were ready for another 
card with a company of other children they had 
brought with them. 

*'But where are we going to put you?" the 
teachers asked. ''The room is not big enough 
to hold you." 

" PFb/ /^2/— outside, " exclaimed the children. 

There was all out of doors, why talk of room. 

"We will knock out a partition," said the 
ladies, "and double the size of the room," and 
they gave them a card with the Lord's Prayer on 
it. 

The next Sunday that was too small, and they 
had to knock down another partition, and this 
Sunday they gave them a card with a hymn, — 

Around the throne of God in heaven 
Ten thousand children stand. 




Taoist Priest 



American Board 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 161 

As I came along the street during the following 
week I heard a lot of little folks in the police station 
singing this hymn. 

One morning when they came the ladies were 
embarrassed. 

"We have no room that is large enough, " they 
explained, "you must come in the afternoon at 
two o'clock." 

The next Sunday at twelve o'clock the alley 
was full of children. They had no clock in 
their homes, and for two hours they were packed 
in about the gate like so many little sardines, and 
it was not many weeks until the church was 
crowded to its utmost capacity, with more than 
five hundred little tots and their teachers. 

What should be done? One of the ladies wrote 
home saying, "Our old church is falling down. 
We have it propped up both inside and out. We 
want $10,000 dollars to build a church that will 
hold fifteen hundred people." 

The secretary told them to go ahead. The 
church was built, and it was not long until there 
were fifteen hundred little half-naked bits of hu- 
manity — some of them entirely naked — filling the 
street in front of the church. 

But that school changed the sentiment of that 
entire section of the city. Where formerly the 
missionaries were reviled when they went out 
to ride or walk, the little folks now met them 
with smiling faces and always greeted them with, 
"Teacher, when is the Sabbath day?" 



162 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Fourtt, Evan- 
gelism by 
Chinese 
^^orkers. 



Pastor Ding. 



Another need of the church is the development 
of a fervent evangelistic spirit. This revival has 
already started almost spontaneously in various 
parts of the empire. I have already referred to 
the work of Miss Yu in Shanghai. In Shantung 
it started with a young Presbyterian pastor, a Mr. 
Ding, a graduate of the college at Weihsien, but 
the quotation given below is of his work in the 
Union College at Tung-chou under the American 
Board. It says: — 

At the end of the second day visible results began to 
appear and eeventeen young men announced their in- 
tention to give their lives to the ministry. This number 
grew daily, until on the day of Mr. Ding's departure 
sixty-eight volunteers for the ministry joined hands 
with him in a great circle and received his parting ad- 
vice and benediction. Fifty others in a similar way de- 
clared the consecration of their whole lives to God in 
whatever calling he might place them. The volunteer 
band has now increased to over seventy. Twenty-three 
students have united with the local church on profession 
of their faith. This means that practically our whole 
student body of one hundred and forty-five boys has 
been deeply moved. 

A similar enthusiastic report comes from both 
the president of the Peking University and that 
of the girls' high school, while Bishop Bashford 
writes: — 

During the i-ecent revival under Mr. Ding, one hun- 
dred and fifty-three young men signed a solemn cov- 
enant with each other and with God, pledging their 
lives for the evangelization of China throvigh some 
form of distinctively Christian work; this is the largest 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 163 

volunteer band to be found in any college in the pagan 
world, if not in any college in Christian lands. Of 
equal importance is the fact that from our girls' school 
on the adjoining compound, during the same revival, 
one hundred and sixty-six young wo:nen consecrated 
their lives to Christian service by a siinilar covenant. 
It is of immeasu7'ahle importa7ice in ^agan lands that 
young men consecrating their lives to the evangelization 
of the empire should find Christian ivives and found 
Christian homes; for the familj', and not the individual 
is the unit of society in China, and also in the divine 
order. 

A pastor inlchou-fu, West Shantung, writes in 
regard to Mr. Ding's work as follows: — 

In April, 1909, a remarkable movement began among Student Re- 

the students of the Arts' College of the Shantung: • i • 

o o vival m 

Christian University. The claims of the Christian gkantu ^ 
ministry were presented to the young men by Rev. Ding 
Lee May, a Chinese pastor. China's need of the 
gospel, the poverty of the church, her need of leader- 
ship, the call of Christ were dwelt upon. First, seven 
of the seniors, the flower of the class, gave their lives 
to the ministry, though they well knew that this meant 
turning their backs on the brilliant oflicial careers open 
to the possessors of the new Western learning, and the 
acceptance instead of poverty and obscurity. The 
number of volunteers increased to twenty, to thirty, to 
sixty, to eighty, until ©ut of a student body numbering 
three hundred, one hundred and sixteen men had 
definitely given themselves to the Christian ministry. 
There was no excitement, no outward manifestation of 
emotion, but a deep consciousness of the presence of 
the spirit of God. 

But the most remarkable of all the revivals in Revival at 
China during the past ten years began in the HingHua. 
southwest of the Fukien Province at Hing Hua, 



164 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Extended 
Chinese Re- 
vivals. 



New Devel- 
opments: 



without any foreign leader, and without any great 
Chinese leader coming to the front, but where 
spontaneously the Chinese were moved to gather 
in crowds of thousands for a month or more, con- 
fessing sins, seeking salvation, and settling old 
scores with neighbors. 

There are two foreigners who have taken posi- 
tions of leadership in this revival work, — Rev. 
Dr. J. H. Pyke of the Methodist Mission in 
North China, and Mr. Goforth of the Canadian 
Presbyterian Mission in Honan. 

Mr. Goforth, who has a fluent command of 
Chinese, conducted evangelistic services intwenty- 
eight centers, everywhere with marked demon- 
strations of the Spirit. In Nanking fifteen hundred 
crowded into a tent made to hold twelve hundred. 
The impassive Chinese broke down in scenes of 
confession and contrition such as were witnessed 
in revivals in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
tury in the United States. In Kai-ting in West 
China so marked were the changes wrought in the 
life of converts that non-Christians on the street 
said, ^ ' The Christian's God has come down. ' ' 

Other remarkable revivals were held. In Hing 
Hua the members of a firm that imported opium 
were converted. They brought their entire stock 
to the pastor to be destroyed. A throng of a 
thousand attended the meetings. 

Carried on in close connection with the evangelistic 
work in Peking is the comparatively recently established 
social work. The North Church is now reaping some 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 165 

of the seed sown during the last six years in the lecture 
room work. One family of seven adult members has 
come into the church as the result of one woman drop- 
ping into the lecture room one afternoon. Last year it Lecture 
was decided to change the character of the lectures a Courses, 
little; three days in the month lectures are now given 
on religion^ and three days on secular subjects. The 
change was made with some apprehension, but the 
women did not take any exception to it, and have come 
quite as often to the one as the other. 

In the autumn or early winter, representatives of the 
five missions working in Peking came together and 
made plans for a series of lectures to be given during 
the next six months. Twelve places were selected, and 
arrangements made for fifty lectures on popular and 
interesting" themes for women. These lectures have 
brought hundreds of women all over the city into touch 
with the Christian Church. In two chapels these lectures 
have been followed by two weeks' evangelistic services. 

The workers in Peking have given much thought to Social Hall in 
the question of how best to come into helpful touch Peking, 
with large classes of women. The past year a ''Social 
Hall" has been opened with this need in mind. As 
Christian workers we have a duty in teaching how to 
co-operate in work for city and individual iniprove- 
ment. In this hall could be held receptions for Chinese 
ladies, and five ladies are studying in afternoon classes. 
One of the pleasantest receptions was that given for 
the lady teachers of the American Indemnity School 
to meet those in government, private and Christian 
schools for girls. Another unique event w^as an anti- 
cigarette rally, when teachers and students from twenty- 
one schools were represented. 

If the Chinese church is to win China for 
Christ she must be able to enlist the whole- 



166 



CHIJSAS NEW DAT 



dent Class. 



Fiftt, Reach- hearted devotion of the student class, both men 
in^ the Stu- and women. In this she is being tremendously 
helped by the student secretaries sent out by the 
Y. M. C. A. and the Y. VV. C. A. These have 
access to student in both missionary and govern- 
ment institutions, and have already aroused great 
interest in Bible study and succeeded in enlisting 
some of the strongest men and women. 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

''Japan is too poor and too small to help China 
either in finance or war, and her people are so immoral 
that contact with them would be harmful rather than 
helpful to the Chinese. China wants the best there is 
in the world, and as all nations are now open to her 
she can get the best. Why should we take ideas from 
Japan when the difference between China and Japan and 
China and America is only the difference between six 
and fourteen days." (Eminent Chinese Official.) 



Progress o£ 

Christian 

Work. 



"In 1901 there were less than 100,000 Protestant 
Christians in China. The stations were many of them 
in ruins, the women missionaries were huddled in 
Peking, while the men in temporary quarters in the 
various centers tried to see what was left of the wrecked 
missions. The survivors of the awful massacres were 
scattered and depressed and poverty-stricken. Hostile 
critics at home were asserting that missionary work in 
China was utterly ruined and that no Chinese would 
ever again embrace Christianity. The Chinese seemed 
sullen and ugly. 

*'To-day the destroyed stations are all rebuilt and 
enlarged, new buildings have been added, missionaries, 
both men and women, travel safely in every part of the 
country. More Chinese have been baptized in eight 
years than in the fifty preceding. The communicant 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 167 

membership of the church has risen (1907) to 180,000, 
which means a Christian community of 640,000, besides 
120,000 children and young people growing up in the 
same holy fellowship." (Condensed from Arthur J. 
Brown. ) 

''It is at this point (the inability to be 'true to the 
highest moral consciousness within them') that the 
regeneration of China fails at present, and will continue 
to fail until some new spiritual regeneration coines to 
affect the nation itself." (Col. C. D. Bruce, the head 
of Shanghai's efficient police department.) 

"So the meetings began. Pastor Ding is an excep- Description of 
tional character. He is humble and modest where one a CKinese Re- 
feels that one might be proud ; so gracious and full of vival. 
tact that we foreigners, when with him, forget that he 
is a Chinese. When he speaks in the pulpit, you do not 
see the man ; you only feel the earnestness of his words. 
From the first, the people were attracted by his simple 
eloquence. Day after day the number grew, until they 
taxed the utmost capacity of our new church. Meet- 
ings were held four times a day. On the third day, op- 
portunities were given to those who wished to study the 
gospel to come forward while their names were recorded. 
Eighty-two responded. At all the succeeding meetings, 
names were added. The Christians began to work — the 
children to bring in their playmates, the laborers their 
friends, the students their classmates, and the rich their 
companions. They could not all come forward, and so 
individuals were given paper and pencil to take the 
names throughout the congregation. The number 
reached 865. After a few more days, the enrollment 
reached 1,000; and still the number grew until it stood 
at over 1,400. 

"It is hard to realize just what these figures stand 
for; we ourselves cannot tell. They are not converts, 
such as you have in America, but only just wanting to 



168 CHINAS NEW DAT 

learn the way which leads to salvation. It is a great 
step in advance of the indifference which has hitherto 
prevailed. Only a small per cent of the whole are 
women, largely because women cannot attend public 
meetings as men do, while many who might have come 
could not get through the mud with their bound feet. 

"It is seldom given to missionaries to see an ingath- 
ering like this, far beyond one's greatest hope. It 
looms up like a great mystery, holding us in awe and 
having but one solution: 'Not by might, not by power, 
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' Will those at home 
remember these inquirers in prayer that the grace of 
the Lord may abound unto them?" 

A Simple ''^ committee of Chinese pastors and elders were 

Christian. examining candidates for church membership in an out- 

station of Tengchow. An old woman almost blind ap- 
peared before them. Her son is an earnest evangelist, 
but not often able to go home to his old mother. Pastor 
Chang asked her how many gods there were, whether 
she kept the Sabbath, etc., to which satisfactory answers 
were received. Then came the question, 'What do you 
know about the doctrine?' The poor old lady answered 
slowly, 'I do not know anything; my son comes once a 
year and tells me, but I forget. I cannot see well. I 
cannot read. There is no one in our village to teach 
me. ' 

" 'Do you trust Jesus?' The face brightens. 'Trust 
Jesus? Oh, yes!' 'Are you sure you trust Him?' A 
look of wonder comes in the face. 'Why, yes, I trust 
Jesus; that is all I know.' " 

"Native "Two phrases have long been current in missionary 

Amenta." literature and correspondence. They are 'native agents' 

and native helpers. . . . We have come now to a point 
in Japan, China and India . . . where we should not 
only abandon this terminology but the whole attitude 
of mind of which it is the expression. 



THE CHINESE CHURCH . 168 

"We cannot always keep the churches of Asia in 
leading strings, and we ought not to do so. We must 
trust them and help to put them on their feet. . . . 

"The more I see of the Christians in Asia, the more 
I respect them. In these countries (China and Korea), 
the Christians, as a class, have come from the lower 
strata of society. I do not mean the very lowest, nor 
am I unmindful that some of the Christians are men 
and women of the upper classes . . . the Chinese com- 
municants are, as a rule, small farmers or shopkeepers. 
Few in either China or Korea had any education or 
social advantages prior to their baptism. Pastors, 
elders, evangelists and teachers have been taken from 
this level. . . . Our schools and colleges are now turn- 
ing out more highly educated men, but most of the 
leaders of -the native churches still belong to the first 
generation of Christians, and had little education in 
youth or until they were converted. But in our con- 
ferences these men discussed large questions with intel- 
ligence, courtesy and dignity. Sound opinions were 
expressed and ably advocated. . . . 

"These Christians are often mighty in prayer. A Spiritual 
missionary writes of the two Chinese pastors in his Christians. 
station : 'The prayerfulness and pastoral spirit of these 
leaders have been a rebuke and an inspiration to me. 
Their conversation is usually on the Scriptures, the 
passages of which they can find better than any foreigner 
I know; and their thoughts are much on the problems 
of the little groups of Christians. Often on the road 
we have stopped and prayed specifically for what the 
leaders had jotted down of definite petitions for par- 
ticular needs. The reality, sincerity and naturalness of 
their prayers, both in thanksgiving and petition, have 
impressed me. Men who are not living in the Spirit 
cannot "get up" such prayers as they pray all the 
time.' 



170 



CHINA' S NE W DA T 



Endurance 

and 

Fidelity. 



Resemblance 
to Early 
Ckristians. 



"Many of these men, too, endure hardness for Christ. 
They do not have the mental and financial support of 
the foreigner. No great body of influential people in 
other lands holds up their hands. They stand alone, 
not only in their social and business relations but some- 
times in their own families. They stand, too, as a rule, 
in such poverty as we but faintly imagine, with only 
the barest necessities of physical life and few if any of 
its comforts. But they manifest a fidelity and courage 
and loving devotion to Christ which deeply move me. 
If, as Amiel said, 'the test of every religious, political 
or educational system is the man which it forms,' 
Christianity is meeting the test in Asia. These men 
are our brethren. They are doing, to say the least, 
quite as well as any of us would do in similar circum- 
stances. Let us honor them and trust them. Let us 
not call them any longer our 'agents' or 'helpers,' but 
our co-workers and friends. 

"I felt anew in this tour that the scattered churches 
in Asia to-day are in about the same position as the 
churches of the first century to which the inspired 
writers addressed their epistles. They, too, were poor 
and lowly people in the midst of a scoffing and hostile 
world. The rich and the great heeded them not, and 
fidelity to Christ often meant loss of occupation and 
persecution which were hard to bear. To them the 
Apostles wrote, expressing the affection which they had 
for those early Christians, their anxiety as they con- 
sidered the temptations and problems which they were 
facing, and yet their absolute confidence that God would 
guide his people aright. The Apostles could hardly 
have written differently if they had directly addressed 
the churches of Asia in the twentieth century. The little 
companies of believers at Philippi and Colosse, Corinth 
and Ephesus, and the sojourners of the dispersion in 
Asia Minor are reproduced to-day in the churches of 
China, Japan and Korea." (Arthur J. Brown.) 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 171 

THE NEW CHINESE HERO 

" 'A memorial meeting was held day before yesterday 
for two students that were killed in the fighting a few 
weeks ago. The head of the board of communications, 
who is a strong Christian man, presided at the meeting, 
and some say that it was almost an evangelistic meet- 
ing. Three Chinese women (II) made speeches that 
stirred the audience of several thousand people. That 
meeting is a wonderful thing for China. Heretofore 
very little honor, if any, has been given to men who 
lost their lives in the struggle for better things. The 
living have cared little for men of this heroic kind. 
Now there will be honor given to those who die for 
their country. ' 

'' The letter from which the above extract was taken, 
goes on to speak of the remarkable part which native 
Christians are playing in the new government. The 
writer says: 'I think I told you in my last that quite a 
number of the new officers in the Foochow government 
are Christians. Of the five boards now organized four 
boards have Christians as presidents. One board is 
divided into three sub-boards, and of these two vice 
presidents are Christians. It really seems as if the op- 
portunitj^ for Christianity was never as great as it is 
now. Several prominent men are quoted as saying in 
public speeches that nothing but Christianity will do 
for China now. ' 

'' The officers in many of the other provisional govern- 
ments are Christians or in sympathy with Christianity, 
and President Sun Yat Sen himself is an earnest Chris- 
tian, baptized many years ago in Canton by a mission- 
ary of the American Board. One or two members of 
his cabinet share his faith. If anyone had predicted 
this twelve years ago he would have been called a mad- 
man. Nothing shows more strikingly how far China 
has traveled since the days of the Boxer rising and the 
massacre of Christians at Taiyuanfu. At the latter 



172 CHINAS NEW DAT 

place, indeed, the people have just appointed a native 
Christian as head of the police force, to devise measures 
for their protection, which the Manchu officials are no 
longer able to afford." ('^Boston Transcript.") 

''Let us consider that a hundred years ago there was 
not a Protestant Christian in China, and that now there 
are a hundred thousand, and that the great mass of 
these have been enrolled during the last fifty years. If 
they progress during the next century in the ever-mul- 
tiplying numbers of a geometrical progression, as they 
have done in the past, before long, this new section of 
the body politic will necessarily make itself felt in the 
counsels of China. This ever-increasing element of 
Christianity, under whose fostering care nearly all the 
material progress the country has ever made in recent 
years has had its inception, is not to be despised nor 
overlooked in prognostications of the future. 

*'The little white stone of Western progress and 
Christianity has been cast into the well-nigh stagnant 
pool of Chinese thought, and it has sunk deep into its 
very heart, unseen to a great extent in its progress ; but 
its influence is making itself visible on the surface in 
ever-increasing ripples, which are extending far and 
wide, and have not yet reached their limit. 

''Had Protestant missionaries done nothing else in 
China than prepared and published the books issued by 
them in Chinese ; started the schools ; written the books 
in English, containing narratives of their own travels, 
and accounts of the natives, and of their religious cus- 
toms and manners ; translated native works ; instructed 
the youth of both sexes; and founded hospitals and 
dispensaries — had these, we say, been the only things 
accomplished by Protestant missionaries, they would 
have done a noble work; but added to all these more 
secular labours is the directly religious work of preach- 
ing the gospel, tract and Bible distribution, visiting. 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 173 

gathering together the converts, etc., all of which, 
though less appreciated by the general mercantile com- 
munity of China, have been as signally successful as 
the other class of undertakings. 

''If Christian missions advance in the next thirty-five 
years in the same ratio as in the past thirty-five years, 
there v/ill be at the end of that time twenty-six millions 
of communicants and a Christian community of one 
hundred million people, — one fourth of the Chinese 
nation." (Dyer Ball, ^'Things Chinese.") 

''Then came evening worship, — the simple, sweet 
service, the little company gathered around a glimmer- 
ing tea-oil lamp, spelling out with difficulty that Word 
which is spirit and life to every one that believeth; the 
queer, fervent hymn, sung each to his own tune. It 
would have seemed a strange picture to your home 
friends, could they have looked within, — the black walls 
looming high into the darkness, the faint light, the bent 
forms kneeling not on the damp mud floor, but on their 
narrow benches ; but God himself had spoken to these 
humble hearts ; and here, in this remote, unknown 
corner of the earth, they were tasting the sweetness of 
the communion of Saints." (Harriet Osborne.) 

"One of our preachers took as his text last Sunday, 
'x\nd we were in all in the ship two hundred and three 
score and sixteen souls.' After a graphic description 
of the circumstances, he said, 'And who is there among 
us to whom I can liken this 276th man, Paul, who knew 
how. to be silent, but also knew how to speak and to 
act when necessity arose?' My attention was close as 
I waited to hear if to his thought Yuan Shi ki, the 
long waited for official, was such a one. But no, to 
my great surprise, he attributed all these qualities of 
courage and resourcefulness to 'the company of foreign 
ladies and teachers, who instead of seeking some safe 
asylum for themselves in Japan or Korea, have stayed 



174 CHINAS NEW DAT 

and planned day and night for the protection of women 
and children and for the families of the people round 
about them.' This was such unexpected appreciation 
that for a moment it was not easy to keep back the 
tears, for many of the Christians have looked askance 
upon our efforts to help the people of all faiths and 
none, fearing perhaps that their interests might be over- 
looked." (Mrs. Ament in ''Life and Light.") 

''Two letters in the strange Chinese characters lie 
before me. They were received a month ago. One is 
from a preacher in our Tsunhua district, the other 
from a former servanL in our mission. They are 
strangel}' alike in that they contain a list of the names 
of those who were known to us all, and after each 
name the sentences read like this: 'He was stoned to 
death,' 'He was cut in pieces,' 'He was quartered,' 'She 
was beheaded and her headless body exposed,' 'His 
wife killed herself to escape outrage,' 'These girls have 
been made slaves,' 'My family hid in the mountains,' 
'She was burned,' 'The family were thrown into prison, 
and lands and crops confiscated, and homes looted,' 
'Every Christian village in the district is destroyed and 
those who have been killed are not a few.' One of 
these letters ends with a plea that Dr. Terry and I 
should pray for 'God's church' that peace may soon 
come, and the other that we should pray for the 'people 
of China,' that they soon may have peace. I could 
take my Bible and write the names of our native Chris- 
tians in China over against every form of torture and 
suffering mentioned in that eleventh Chapter of 
Hebrews. 

"There were weak and faithless ones, that we know 
and do not deny, but that the great body of Christians 
stood firm and went with brave hearts and unflinching 
faith to the awful forms of torture and death that only 
heathen cruelty can devise is true also, and it should 
give to us all a deeper trust, a firmer hold on the 



THE CHINESE CHURCH 175 

realities of life and the deep meaning in the Master's 
words, 'Whosoever shall lose his life for mj sake and 
the gospel's, the same shall save it.' 

"In those anxious days in Peking at the time of Con- 
ference I had been telling my assistant and one of our 
Tsunhua Bible women of the possibility of our never 
getting out of Peking alive. They looked at me calmly, 
and one said, *We shall see God perhaps much sooner 
than we thought, and in a different way, and Timothy 
said, "If we suffer we shall also reign with Him." ' 
The other said, 'We are in God's hands.' Oh, how 
many times we heard our Christians say those words, 
'We are in God's hands!' Very many of them seemed 
to be moved by z. personal \ovq for Christ and a trust 
in his abiding presence in those fearful days." 
(Methodist" Leaflet. ) 



QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. In the light of the record of the Chinese Chris- 
tians during the Boxer outbreak is it fair to doubt their 
sincerity? 

2. In what elements is the Chinese church pre-emi- 
nently strong? 

3. What problem in Chinese evangelism seems most 
pressing? 

4. In the light of present conditions what action 
should be taken by Women's Boards 

5. Compare the growth and character of the Chinese 
church with that of India, of Japan. 

6. If you were to be a missionary in China which 
would you choose to do : train Chinese Bible women, 
organize Sunday schools, establish kindergartens, do 
evangelistic service among women, medical mission 
work, train nurses, or teach in a girls' boarding 
school? Which seems to offer the greatest opportunity 
for fundamental helpfulness? 



176 CHINAS NEW DAT 

7. Resolved that the development of Christian work 
for women and girls is the most pressing obligation 
upon the church in China. 

8. Can you connect the Chinese revivals with similar 
movements in other parts of the world? 

9. What attitude of mind is indicated by oxxv use of 
the term ''native church"? What better terminology 
might be substituted? 

10. What elements may the developed Chinese church 
add to our apprehension of Christian truth? 

11. What reflex benefits on the home churches are 
missionary activities in China likely to exert? 




Kindergarten, Baldwin Memorial, Nanchang 

Methodist Episcopal Society 




Amoy Schoolgirls Sewing 

Dutch Reformed Board 



CHAPTER V 



MEDICAL MISSIONS AND THEIR WORK 



The physical betterment of a nation is an essen- Christianity 
tial part of its regeneration. One of the glorious and the Body, 
by-products of Christianity has been a new sense 
of the sacred ness of the body and a new study of 
its laws. From the viewpoint of Christian mis- 
sions, therefore, the medical missionary is a direct 
as well as an indirect agency for spreading the 
gospel of the kingdom. Direct, in that by him 
people see as of old they sav/ "the lepers 
cleansed, the lame walk, the blind see, the 
deaf hear ' because of the presence of Jesus Christ. 
Direct, too, in its removal of barriers of disease 
and suffering and filth that prevent the wholesome 
growth of the spirit. Indirect, in that the med- 
ical missionary prepares the way through the soft- 
ening of prejudice and the breaking of the thick 
crust of ignorance for the evangelistic worker who 
follows. 

The aim of the present chapter is to set forth Aim of 
the need of China for the gospel of health and Chapter, 
sanitation, the beginnings which have been made 
through medical missions to meet that need, 
the bearings of that work on evangelization, and 
the crying necessity of further reinforcing this 
branch of the work. 



178 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

Pkysical Suf- " The amount of disease and suffering in China," 
fering in says Dr. Stewart in the " Chinese Recorder " of Oc- 

China. tober, 1896, " is very great, and the methods of na- 

tive medical practice tend rather to increase than to 
lessen it. The rich and poor alike suffer. Igno- 
rance, superstition and filth are as apparent and 
potent among the wealthy as among the poverty- 
stricken. Scientific diagnosis and rational treatment 
are an impossibility even to the most wealthy, for the 
reason that a requisite knowledge of medicine can- 
not be said to exist in China at the present time." 
Rural Condi- Throughout the country and the villages the 
tions. houses are built of mud or brick, v^ith dirt floors or 

porous brick floors. The inmates expectorate all 
about them until the floor becomes saturated with 
the sputum of generations. Tuberculosis is fright- 
fully common all over the empire, indeed it is rare 
to find a family that is entirely free from the dis- 
ease. Outside the door the drainage from the 
other houses stands in pools, or drains in a slimy 
rivulet to a pond for fertilizer just outside the vil- 
lage wall. In the cities the streets are of dirt, and 
similar drains of similar slime are to be found 
everywhere. In Peking, where they had a great 
sewage system, they cleaned the sewers in the 
spring by taking the contents out of the sewer, pil- 
ing them up on the sidewalk, where they were al- 
lowed to dry for a week or ten days, after which 
they used this same material for building up the 
street whence it had washed into the sewer. Such 
a condition in the great Asiatic cities generates 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 179 

smallpox, cholera, bubonic, pneumonic and other 
plagues that strike terror to the heart of the world. 

To cope with these conditions China has no 
trained body of physicians. Her practice of med- 
icine, like her system of education, is antiquated, 
empirical, and must needs give way to scientific 
methods. 

I once went with Dr. Morrison, that wizard of the Visit tte Book 
" London Times," to visit Liu Li Chang, the great Street, 
book and curio street of Peking. He was anxious 
to secure some Chinese medical books of the old 
original type. After inquiring at several of the 
shops, we finally discovered some which he thought 
he wanted. In showing us the books the dealer 
also brought forth a chart — an anatomical chart I 
supposed it to be, though I knew that the Chinese 
had never studied anatomy. It w^as almost the 
size of the human body, but was covered all over 
with black spots which gave it the appearance of 
having had the smallpox. Almost every Chinese 
under the old regime had had that disease, and so 
I said to the dealer: '' It looks as though it had 
' blosso?ned ozit' (the Chinese name for smallpox), 
why does it have all these spots? " 

He smiled, and then by way of explanation 
said : "No, it has not had the smallpox. Those are 
the places where you can insert the needle in treat- 
ment by acupuncture without killing the patient." 

"And about how many patients would you have 
to kill in making a chart of this kind before you 
discovered all these thousands of spots? " 



180 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



Various Kind 
of Medical 
^Vorks. 



He shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say 
that hisbusiness was selHngand not making charts. 
We found very many works on all phases of 
medical practice, from the eye, ear, nose, throat 
and teeth, to the treatment of infantile maladies, 
as well as the diseases of camels, oxen and buf- 
faloes. Some of these works are veritable ency- 
clopedias. One, prepared by a prince about five 
hundred years ago, is in 168 books, has 1,960 dis- 
courses on 2,175 different subjects, with 778 rules, 
231 diagrams, and 21,739 prescriptions. Pre- 
scriptions enough to cure all the ills of life ; but 
when a Chinese has a headache he pastes turnip 
skins on his temples to bring the ache out. When 
he has a sore throat he pinches it up and down the 
two sides and the center until it is black and blue, 
in order that by counter-irritation he may cure the 
pain within. He still has a sore throat — ^but it is 
on the outside. 

Treatment by acupuncture is still practiced by 
the old Chinese physician, and not always accord- 
ing to the spots on the chart, as every physician of 
any experience in Chinese practice will tell you. 
Without any attention to antiseptic methods they 
not infrequently cause blood poison, or introduce 
germs which set up inflammation, leaving the pa- 
tient with a condition of arm, or limb, or joint, 
v^hich may require amputation. 
Chinese Med- Now this is not to Say that there is nothing good 
icine not in Chinese medicine. The Chinese begun 2700 

Wholly Bad. ygars B. C. to experiment with herbs in the treat- 



Acupuncture . 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 181 

ment of disease, and have discovered, and used for 
centuries, many of the common physics, astringents 
and other household remedies which our mothers 
and grandmothers used. Chinese medicine is still 
w^hat our medicine would be without medical col- 
leges or systematic instruction. 

There are in all communities certain men and Ckinese Doc- 
women who have a disposition to prescribe for *°^^- 
anyone who is ill. Those who succeed in their 
prescriptions finally turn their knowledge into a 
commercial channel, supply themselves with an 
outfit of medical books, study the Chinese system 
of taking the pulse, which may require two years 
or more to learn well, in which each finger of 
the physician tells its own tale, even to the extent 
of learning how many years the patient has to live. 
The patient may also keep his own medical books, 
and if the prescriptions do not suit him he may 
prescribe for himself. 

Under the old regime there were no medical No Medical 
schools and hence no medical students. No li- Schools, 
cense was necessary in order to practice medicine, 
but anyone was allowed to practice who could find 
patients to drink his doses. 

The practice of surgery was most infrequent, as 
the Chinese had superstitions about the effect of 
the amputation of any part of the body on the con- 
dition of the spirit. 

It is no wonder that under such conditions the Advent of 
introduction of Western medicine by the mission- Medical Mis- 
aries was in the highest sense educative and sue- 



182 CHINA' S NE W DA T 

cessful in opening the way for the preaching of 
the gospel. The story has been so fully told in 
previous study books that this is not the time to re- 
peat it, but rather to consider the present condi- 
tion, needs and opportunities of the medical 
branch of missionary service. 
The Plague. The terrible visitation of the plague, bubonic 

and pneumonic, has brought a fresh realization of 
the importance of modern medicine and sanitation 
to the Chinese. The heroism of medical mission- 
aries in aiding the government to stamp it out, has 
helped too, to commend Christianity to the people. 
"When plague broke out in great virulence in 
Manchuria in the middle of the w^inter the w^ord 
struck terror to the hearts of millions. The w^hole 
v^^orld was in practical ignorance of what the 
spread of this disease might mean, and even its 
manifestations and method of contagion and prop- 
agation were in large measure matters of conjecture. 
Its virulence and rapid spread were very patent 
facts, and with the help of all the foreign medical 
experts available, the Chinese Government set about 
the prevention of the spread of the disease in so far 
as it was able. Too much cannot be said in praise 
of these inen who gave their best efforts, even in 
the face of death, in order to save the lives of 
others, and especial gratitude should be felt to the 
unknown thousands who as police, military or 
sanitary ofhcers performed their duties without 
hesitation, courageously and well. The infection 
spread all through Manchuria and into many dis- 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 183 

tricts in Chihli and Shantung. A natural corol- 
lary of the plague was the International Plague 
Conference held in Mukden, whose principal find- 
ings are now known to the world, — that the 
plague (pneumonic) originates with the taraba- 
gan, a species of marmot; that infection is not 
carried on the breath, but is carried in the sputum, 
and that the bacillus dies very quickly without 
proper nourishment and cultivation." 

An instance of the thorough way in which the Japanese 
Japanese deal with the plague was mentioned in Thoroughness, 
a recent issue of the "Missionary Review of the 
World." In Formosa they are in control of a 
Chinese population of 3,000,000. They levy a tax 
of two rats on every household. Every rat is 
examined, and if found to be infected the house 
from which it came is cleansed and disinfected. 
During the last eight years 35,000,000 rats have 
been thus destroyed. Twice every year each 
house and shop has to disgorge all its effects and 
to be thoroughly cleaned out. The streets are 
lined with rows of tables piled with bottles, boots, 
fruits, boxes, tins, cans, pots and pans, while an 
inspector passes along to see that the shops are 
properly clean. 

" The people of Tientsin," says Dr. Stevenson, Impression on 
' ' are awake to the fact that vaccination does prevent *^^ Chinese, 
smallpox, so many children are brought to us for 
vaccination. No one realizes as the Chinese do 
the awful ravages of this disease. Perhaps the one 
thing that has made the greatest impression on the 



184 CHINAS NEW DAT 

Chinese from a medical standpoint has been the 
presence of the plague in North China. The for- 
eign-trained Chinese doctors did most effective 
work in sanitation and isolation. Dr. Wu Lien 
Te won the admiration of both foreigners and 
Chinese for the able way in which he directed 
several thousand men granted him by the gov- 
ernment to aid in stamping out the plague. 

" One can scarcely realize the difficulty encoun- 
tered by those in charge of this work because of 
the ignorance and superstition of the great masses 
of the people. They never isolate themselves for 
any infectious disease. When one has scarlet fever 
or smallpox it is the custom for all the relatives 
and friends to call and see him. However, the 
people of Tientsin are being educated up to for- 
eign medicine and seldom call us too late." 
The Chinese One of the finest products of missionary pio- 

Tramed Phy- neering in medicine has been the young Chinese 
sician. physicians trained in Western medicine. At first 

the training was necessarily incomplete and par- 
tial, but even then surprisingly good results in 
strength of character, influence and skill were 
reached as the following incident will show. 

One of the first graduates from the school of 
medicine in Peking University was Dr. Wang. 
When the Boxer trouble reached Peking he was 
arrested, his little son with him. The Boxers 
were ordered to put to death anyone who would 
not give up his faith and burn incense to the gods 
in the temple. But educated men were few in 
China, and so they said to him : — 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 185 

"Dr. Wang, you are an educated man; we do A Chinese 
not want to put you to death, but we have no lib- Christian 
erty in the matter. You go with us and burn Pliysician. 
some incense and we will let you go." 

" No," said he, " I will not burn incense." 

" Well, we want to make it easy for you," they 
continued, " you just get some one to go and burn 
incense in your place and it will be all right." 

"No, I will not get anyone to burn incense for 
me," he persisted. 

" Well, we will get some one to burn incense 
for you," they continued. "You just go over to 
the temple with us." 

" No," he answered, " I will not do that." Faithful unto 

"Then," they continued, "we must kill you." I^^^^^^- 

" You may kill me," he answered, " but I w^ill 
not worship your gods. How could I look my 
teachers in the face, if I burned incense in that 
temple ? to say nothing of my Christ ! We are 
four generations of Christians, my grandfather, my 
father, myself and this little boy. Do you think I 
would allow this child to see his father deny his 
Saviour? Kill me if you will but I will not deny 
my Lord." They ran him through with a spear. 

It was their own conversation afterwards, over- 
heard by one of our coolies who was carrying 
water for them at the time, that furnished us with 
the above information. As they themselves said : 
" It was a pity to kill such a man." 

But important as were the earlier developments 
of medical missions the establishment of hospitals 



186 CHINA'S NEW DAI'' 

Medical Mis- and training schools for women marked a develop- 
sions for ment possibly even more influential. From the 

Women. Chinese viewpoint it was unsuitable that women 

should be treated in general hospitals or by male 
practitioners. Yet women were the greatest suf- 
ferers from the defects of Chinese medical skill, 
and the ignorance and superstition of mothers re- 
sulted in a frightfully heavy toll of infant death 
and in general ill health and misery. The Women's 
Boards went about to undertake this form of min- 
istry, and have developed some of the institutions 
of most widespread beneficent influence. The 
following may be mentioned as typical. 

At Kityang, China, is the Josephine M. Bixby 
Hospital for women and children (Baptist) . 
Dr. Bixby. "Dr. Bixby was an Iowa girl. Converted at 

sixteen, she soon determined to give her life to the 
foreign work. Declining all proffered aid she 
maintained herself for two years in the Training 
School for Nurses, two years in the Woman's 
Medical College and some time in the Moody In- 
stitute, all in Chicago. 

" She sailed from San Francisco October 16, 
1894, and reached Swatow, China, November 8th. 
Here she commenced the study of the Chinese 
language and took charge of some patients in con- 
nection with Dr. Scott. Together they treated 
more than a thousand patients a week. Dr. Bixby 
attending specially to the eye and ear patients. 
And in a little more than a year she assumed 
charge at Kityang. Here amid privations and 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 187 

difficulties, work that demanded a man's strength, 
with none but native assistants, whom she had 
trained, sometimes alone at the station and taking 
charge of other's work during their furloughs, she 
wrought and planned and hoped and accom- 
plished for eleven years. Then came the few 
months of suffering, and on Sabbath morning, 
June 16, 1907, she passed over to the true 
' Homeland.' " 

Let us follow Dr. Bixby through one day's 
work, typical of hospital work thrc agh all the 
stations in that locality. 

"From half past eight to nine o'clock every A Day's 
morning we have a singing and preaching service Work, 
at the chapel. This is under Mr. Speicher's direc- 
tion, and that of native preachers. At nine o'clock 
I repair to the hospital, and, if it is not 'dispensary 
day,' spend the morning with my native helpers, 
looking after our in-patients. If it is dispensary 
day, my two boys attend to the dressing and treat- 
ing of eyes, before nine o'clock, and at nine the 
door is opened and tickets are given out as the 
people come in, and we dispense medicines, and 
treat eyes, and all sorts of maladies until noon. 

" The religious service for the in-patients is held 
in the evening, when all who are able to do so are 
gathered in the v^aiting room, and after a song is 
sung, a portion of the gospel is read and explained 
by one of the helpers, then a prayer is offered, 
and it is no uncommon thing for several to rise 
before the prayer is offered, and unsolicited, re- 



188 CHINA' S NE W DAT 

quest that prayer be made for them. The dis- 
pensary also is always opened with a short service. 
" We often find their ignorance exceedingly 
dense and to make even a slight impression upon 
them a most discouraging task, yet the v^ork is not 
hopeless for many have learned while in the hos- 
pital to read a few hymns or tracts, and have 
learned to pray, and have taken home with them 
some seed truths, which, being divine, we know 
cannot die." 
The Oldest ^^ ^n^ at Canton the oldest and largest 

Mission Hos- mission hospital in the world, founded in 1835 by 
pital. Dr. Peter Parker. It is supported by the Canton 

Medical Society, the physicians being furnished by 
the Board. There are 61 wards, with 300 beds, 
and over 20,000 patients treated annually. From 
1853 to 1899 it was superintended by Dr. John 
G. Kerr, who trained 150 Chinese students, and 
translated over 20 medical works into Chinese. 
He also founded the only insane asylum in China. 
This hospital with its large chapel and schools is 
one of the most important evangelistic agencies in 
Southern China. Dr. John M. Swan is now in 
charge. Chinese friends have presented a build- 
ing for a medical college. There are five dis- 
pensaries in different parts of the city. 
Dr. Mary The largest medical work for women in all 

Fulton. China under a single missionary continues to be 

the allied institutions in Canton, under Dr. Mary 
Fulton, namely, the David Gregg Hospital for 
Women, the Hackett Medical College, the Julia 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 189 

M. Turner Training School for Nurses and the 
maternity and children's wards. Dr. Fulton is 
assisted by Dr. Boyd, while such help as their 
duties permits is given by Dr. Niles, Dr. Machle 
and Dr. Selden. It is more difficult to have hos- 
pital work exclusively for women than for men. 
In a recent report Dr. Fulton says : — 

*' It is not easy for the ordinary Chinese mother 
to leave her house. She must watch the door, 
attend to the children, cook, mend, etc. She has 
control of no money, and it is given only grudg- 
ingly if she must enter a hospital. I have known 
husbands to come to our sick women, and scold 
them for not getting well of some serious illness 
after a residence with us of a few days. The 
women are afraid to remain away long from 
home. One woman said she must hurry home or 
her husband would bring back another wife during 
her absence. With the men it is different. They 
go where and when they please and carry all the 
money with them. They remain in a hospital till 
cured or as long as they wish. 

" Forty-eight young women are enrolled at the HacKettMed- 
Hackett Medical College. Instruction is given ical College, 
by five Chinese and five foreign teachers. 

" In January, three were graduated, making 34 in 
the seven years. Some are pushing out into un- 
touched regions, which is helping to accomplish 
our object of supplying each large town w^ith two 
Christian physicians. Eleven were engaged as 
instructors in medicine in different places. We 



190 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

have three students from Foochow, one from 
Amoy, two from Hainan. The two who came 
from Honohilu over four years ago to study with 
Dr. Chesnut received their diplomas this year. 
One is now in Heung Shan and one is to assist a 
foreigner in a hospitaL They seem Hke a sacred 
legacy, and I am grateful they are finally launched 
on their life-work." 

Ten nurses are under training at the. Julia M. 
Turner Training School. 
Demand for "The demand for nurses has exceeded the 

Nurses. supply. We need a new building for a nurses' 

home. One of our nurses who speaks English is so 
constantly wanted that she has been compelled to 
put up her price. Dr. Davenport says, ' She is 
worth it, as she is a perfect success.' This is 
high praise from an English doctor for a girl 
trained in a native hospital." 

Dr. Fulton managed in some mysterious way to 
spend five hours a day in translation work. Three 
books are in progress, two of which will soon be 
published. She has translated: "Remarkable 
Answers to Prayer," "Diseases of Children," 
" Nursing in Abdominal Surgery," " Gynecology," 
etc. She says : — 

"China is awakening so rapidly that she is not 
only crying from hunger, but one may say scream- 
ing for immediate nourishment in the way of 
books and help of every kind." 

" After medical work in Amoy itself was given 
up by the English Presbyterians, in 1894, the 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 191 

Board of the Reformed Church, in America, de- Hope and 
cided to take it up. In 1897 the first steps were Wilhelmina 
taken. Money for a hospital for men was raised Hospitals, 
in America, and for a hospital for women in The 
Netherlands. The former was called Hope Hos- 
pital, and the latter at first Netherlands Women's 
Hospital, but subsequently Wilhelmina Hospital, 
after the Queen, whose mother is now its ofiicial 
' Protectress.' 

" Since the beginning of the work in Hope 
and Wilhelmina Hospitals, 16,000 in-patients and 
125,000 out-patients have been treated. Over 
7,000 operations of all kinds have been performed. 

" The work is divided into four parts. First, 
there is the Dispensary. Five days are given to 
this a week. To these clinics patients are ad- 
mitted free of charge, except that they must pay 
three cents for the card giving their number. 
This is paid but once, unless they lose their card, 
when a fine of three cents is imposed. Medicines 
and dressings are free. ' Only the bottles have to 
be paid for." 

"In Shanghai," says the Protestant Episcopal Protestant 
report, " medical work has arisen out of the Episcopal 
physical needs of the people of China as natu- Work, 
rally as the evangelistic and educational vv^ork 
has been done in answer to their spiritual 
and intellectual needs. It is not to be considered 
as a bait by which men are drawn to accept the 
gospel, but as holding something of the same 
place as the miracles of mercy which our Lord 



192 CHINA' S NE W DAT 

worked upon the sick. These were the natural 
outflowing of His love to man and the work of the 
medical missionary is the free and unselfish devo- 
tion of time and skill to heal the bodily ills of 
men. It serves, no doubt, as an evidence of what 
Christianity means, but it is more than this ; it is 
Christian love in action, and love is the true motive 
for every form of missionary w^ork. 

'' In the District of Shanghai there are at Shang- 
hai, St. Luke's Hospital for men and St. Eliza- 
beth's for women, with dispensaries at both hos- 
pitals and two more dispensaries at Jessfield and 
Wusih. 

"In the District of Hankow there are St. Peter's 
Hospital for men and the Elizabeth Bunn Hospital 
for women in Wuchang, with dispensaries at each 
place. 

" In the district of Wuhu there is St. James' hos- 
pital, Anking, for both men and women, and a 
dispensary connected with it. 

" The hospitals for women are under the charge 
of women physicians. The doctors, whether men 
or women, are graduates of the best n;edical 
schools, and the aim of all these institutions is to 
give the Chinese the benefit of the best care and 
the highest skill in the present, and to supply 
them with the object lesson of a few well-equipped, 
well-organized and well-conducted institutions, 
that they may be led to provide large numbers of 
similar institutions for themselves and their coun- 
trymen in the future. Working with the American 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 193 

doctors are Chinese doctors who have gradu- 
ated from mission medical schools, and assistants 
who have been trained in. the mission hospitals. 
The hospitals owe inuch also to the Ainerican 
w^omen who have come out as nurses. Their as- 
sistance in the operating rooms and care for the 
cleanliness of the hospitals, their training of 
Chinese nurses, and their work with the women 
in the dispensaries are of the greatest value. The 
value of the medical work is so plain to the com- 
munity where it is established that it usually re- 
ceives substantial support in fees and subscriptions 
from Chinese and foreigners." 

Among the women's hospitals in Shanghai none Dr. Reifsny- 
stands higher in the estimation of the community der's Work, 
than that of the Woman's Union Missionary So- 
ciety, for so many years under the superintendence 
of Dr. Reifsnyder. She is a woman of great 
strength of character, broad views, large vision, 
and has had a tremendous influence on the com- 
munity through her medical work. 

The women of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mary Black 
South, have the Mary Black Hospital in Soochow, Hospital in 
in charge of Dr. Margaret H. Polk, of whom they Sooctow. 
say :— 

" Under Dr. Polk's unfaltering consecration of 
life and energy to her chosen work it has grown 
to proportions wholly beyond the power of one 
woman to inanage. She is now senior physician 
to 10,000 patients per year, this being the annual 
average from 1905 to 1910. She is general super- 



194 CHINA'S NEW BAT 

visor of all hospital business, including the design- 
ing and erection of buildings. She is surgeon in 
charge of the hospital, instructor in the Soochow 
Medical College, lecturer in the School of Phar- 
macy and in the School of Nursing. 

"In response to her repeated calls for help, 
Miss Mary Iloc^d, our first trained nurse, was sent 
to her in 1907. She organized a class of nurse- 
training students, which movement holds promise 
of unspeakable relief to the suffering race of 
Chinese women and children." 
Dr. Lucy P. • '^^^^ work of the Woman's Board of the Con- 
Bement's grcgational Church is found at Foochow, at 

Work. Shao-wu, where Dr. Lucy P. Bement is seeing 

16,000 patients annually, besides her hospital 
in-patients, at Pang-Chuang, where " the clientele 
expanded rapidly from 2,000 in 1882 to 8,000 in 
1886. It reached 15,000 patients per annum in 
the first decade, and 25,000 in 1897. Of in- 
patients there were from 500 to 800 annually, af- 
fording a large field for special Christian work, as 
the average stay of each patient was ten days. A 
venerable preacher became hospital chaplain, per- 
forming his duties admirably for ten years, froin 
1890 to 1900. 

" A summary of the work of two decades is typ- 
ical of the vaster work in the empire. The first 
decade sums up 44,163 individuals treated; the 
second decade, 98,952, making a total of 143,000 
first treatments, and of 280,000 total treatments. 
The proportion of ?nen to woinert was as Jive to 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 195 

three. Surgical operations during first decade, 
3,768; during second, 7,323 ; a total of 11,000. 
One fourth of these were operations connected 
with the eye." 

Dr. F. F. Tucker is in charge of the men's hos- Mrs. Dr. 
pital and dispensary work here, but there is " a Tucker, 
third court, for women only, and here the eyes, 
ulcers, aches, babes and children are even more 
appealing than in the other wards. These pa- 
tients are largely under the special care of Dr. 
Emma Boose Tucker. Mr. Roosevelt is reported 
to have said in speaking of the kind of American 
he met in Africa, ' But his wife is a better fellow 
still ;' and so it seems to these humble and needy 
women who must be reached by the woman phy- 
sician, if they are to be won, body and soul." 

Again at Lintsing this same Board has Dr. Dr. Susan B, 
Susan B. Tallmon, who in a description of a day's Tallmon. 
clinic, gives the following interesting paragraph — 
interesting because unusual : — 

" That girlish-looking mother asks if we cannot 
see her baby. She and her husband have walked 
six miles to bring the child, — he carrying it in one 
of two baskets suspended from the ends of a pole 
resting on his shoulder. The baby is a girl and 
only a year old. Her head is swollen to much 
more than its natural size, and her eyelids are so 
puffed that they seem near bursting. No ; we 
will not take her into the dispensary ; we will treat 
her here on the porch. I am afraid she has ery- 
sipelas, and we do not wish to get any unnecessary 



196 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Sleeper Davis 

Memorial 

Hospital- 



Fund for tte 
Destitute. 



germs into the room. How anxious the parents 
are ! Who says baby girls in China are seldom 
loved?" 

An insight into the unselfish ministry of these 
medical missionaries is given in the report of the 
Sleeper Davis Memorial Hospital : — 

"It is not always telling the story of Christ 
and his love that counts most. A woman was 
carried from her home to the hospital on a 
stretcher. For weeks she had been suffering with 
inflammatory rheumatism, and the slightest move- 
ment seemed to cause intense pain. For weeks 
she had lain on her kang, or warm brick bed, with- 
out bath, and without change of clothing. Natu- 
rally, a bath was the doctor's first order ; and Miss 
Powell, wishing to give her nurses an object les- 
son, determined to carry out the order herself. It 
was a difficult and unpleasant task, but proved 
\vell worth while. I am sure that woman will 
never cease to speak of Miss Powell's gentleness 
and kindness. ' Why,' she said, ' I have many 
dear friends and relatives, but there is no one who 
would do for me what you have done to-day ! ' 
She went home several ' weeks later, impressed 
with the thought that there is power in the Chris- 
tian religion to change the human heart. 

" We have had in our hands this year a small 
fund which has enabled us to furnish medicine, 
surgical dressing, food and clothing to a few very 
needy ones. Destitute old ladies and neglected 
little children have been among the recipients. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 197 

Each of these poor people has a story. We hope 
the fund will be added to, so the good work may 
continue through the coming year. Often our 
wealthy Chinese patrons are glad to contribute 
toward the support of the poor in our hospital 
wards. 

"For several years we have returned to the 
Missionary Society their annual appropriation for 
the support of the hospital. More money comes 
in each year from the sale of medicine and dis- 
pensary tickets. We depend largely for running 
expenses on the income from our outside practice, 

" The educated classes believe in Western medi- 
cine and are willing to pay for the services of a 
Western doctor in their homes." 

The Woman's Hospital in Ch'ang Li (Metho- Hospital 
dist) is again left without a doctor. In comment, witkout •, 
Dr. Keeler, in charge of the men's hospital, says : Doctor. 
" Here we have a complete and commodious set of 
buildings with ten thousand dollars invested, good 
living quarters, and a situation which for natural 
beauty, mountain scenery and healthful surround- 
ings is unequaled in North China, with ten thou- 
sand sick and suffering children and women crying, 
' Come over and help us ! ' Is it not possible by 
prayer and perseverance to find in all America a 
woman doctor to do this work.f* Another hospi- 
tal whose one physician must come home on fur- 
lough pleads for, 'Just one of the ordinary all round 
good doctors of whom there are so many at home. 
If only they could know the need in China.' '* 



198 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Cliinese 
^Vomen Phy- 
sicians. 



^Voolston 
Memorial 
Hospital. 



There has been one unique feature about the 
work of the Methodist church in Southern and 
Central China, viz., ihe medical education of 
young Chinese ladies in America. 

The first of these was Hii King Eng of Foo- 
chow. Mrs. Keen of Philadelphia took an interest 
in this young lady. She first entered the Foo- 
chow boarding school, then studied music, then 
became a student helper in the Woman's hospital, 
then took a course in the Ohio Wesleyan Univer- 
sity, and in 1888 entered the Woman's Medical 
College at Philadelphia. As the result of a fever 
her health became impaired, and she returned 
to her home in Foochow where she assisted in the 
work until, "in the fall of 1892 she returned to 
Philadelphia to complete her course in the 
Woman's Medical College. After graduating 
with honor in 1894, she took special hospital 
work, and went back to her native city in 1895, a 
regular medical missionary of the Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society. 

"As head of the Woolston Memorial Hospital, 
her Christian love, natural kindness and courtesy 
and medical skill draw to her the hearts of hun- 
dreds of suffering women, who feel that there is 
sympathy for them in her every look and touch. 
Many tablets have been presented to the hospital 
in token of appreciation of her work, while her 
missionary associates have a laudable pride in her 
success as a doctor, and her faithfulness wins their 
affectionate regard. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 199 

"A total of more than 26,753 prescriptions for 
the year 1909 partially indicates the extent of her 
labor of love. 

'' The graduation of the first student from 
Woolston Hospital in 1902 was the occasion of 
much rejoicing and lively explosions of festive 
firecrackers. It was celebrated in an ancestral 
hall, loaned for the exercises, and was the first 
time that a Christian service had been held in an 
ancestral temple. 

" The people "were eager and curious to witness 
this departure. 

"In Dr. Hii's quaint phraseology, 'seeing a "-Engaged, 
Chinese young woman receiving her diploma made Married or 
many Chinese parents regret that their daughters Dj'owned. 
were engaged, or married, or drowned,' while 
others exclaimed, 'Alas ! who knew girls could do 
so much good to the world, more than our boys ! '" 

This graduate, it is interesting to note, was Hii 
Seuk Eng, the sister of Dr. Hii, who is now act- 
ing as her assistant in the hospital. 

Standing as she does, the first Chinese woman 
physician educated in a foreign land. Dr. Hii King 
Eng is an honor to her race and a joy to the So- 
ciety under whose auspices she works. Her life, 
too, is well expressed in her own words, — "I just 
' look up * and ' lend a hand.' " 

" While in this country her influence was very 
helpful to others. One grateful mother exclaimed, 
' Little did I dream w hen giving money for the 
work in China that a Chinese girl would lead my 



200 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

daughter to Christ !' God is faithful to his prom- 
ises. As we send the joy and blessing to the far 
away ones, he gives us back joy and blessing — 
* good measure, pressed down and running over.' " 

In Central China Miss Gertrude Howe has the 
distinction of having been instrumental in educat- 
ing two young ladies who have caused favorable 
comment in two continents. These two ladies are 
Dr. Ida Kahn and Dr. Mary Stone. 
Dr. Mary Mary Stone was born on the " first day of the 

Stone. third moon" in 1873, in a Christian home. Her 

parents were among the first Christian converts in 
China. With true devotion the little black-eyed 
baby was baptized and consecrated to " Heaven's 
Lord." Dr. Ida Kahn, in writing of her friend's 
early life, says : — 

" With a faith which was strong and clear they 
brought up little Mary with natural feet, thus giv- 
ing her the distinction of being the first native girl, 
not a slave, in Central and West China to have her 
feet left as God had made them. 

" She began her Chinese studies early and 
proved an apt student. When she was seven years 
old two missionary doctors opened a hospital in 
Kiu Kiang. Seeing the good accomplished by 
these ladies, Mary's father thought he would like 
to have his daughter help her country women in 
the same way. So he took her to one of the phy- 
sicians, asking her to teach Mary to be a doctor. 
This she kindly consented to do, as Miss Howe 
agreed first to teach her English. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 201 

" At nineteen years of ao"e she obtained her 
matriculation at the University of Michigan. She 
graduated in 1896 and returned to work among her 
own people." 

The second of these native Christian Chinese 
doctors, Ida Kahn, was also born in 1873, but be- 
gan her life in a heathen home. We will let Dr. 
Stone tell the story : — 

" According to the Chinese custom, a fortune Dr. Ida KaLn. 
teller was called to tell her fate and to advise the 
mother concerning this new dausihter. The blind 
man came, leaning for support on a small boy, 
hired by the fortune teller to lead the way. Then, 
though his blind eyes could not see the bright 
young face before him, he pronounced that she 
should be killed or sent away to another family. 
'For,' said he, 'if she is allowed to live in this 
house you could not have the son you so desired, 
and who w^ill be your heir w^hen you die ? ' The 
mother was not so hard-hearted as to kill her 
child, nor was she compelled to do it by her 
good-natured husband, who in this matter excelled 
some of his hot-tempered countrymen who drive 
their wives to shameful leng-ths bv harsh w^ords or 
blows. So accordingly a family w^^s to be sought 
that would satisfy her ambitious motherly heart. 
Another fortune teller was consulted, and this time 
it was found that Ida was born under the dog's 
star, while her intended was born under the cat's 
star, which was just the reverse of what it should 
be, for in China girls should always be inferior to 



202 CHINAS NEW DAT 

boys. But the child's life was not to be so easily 
slighted, when the Heavenly Father had sent it 
down with a mission to fulfill. After learning the 
story of the child from her native teacher, Miss 
Adopted by Howe and another missionary lady w^ent in sedan 
Miss Howe. chairs to Ida's home and carried her back with 
them that very afternoon, and Miss Howe adopted 
her as her own. Ida's early years w^ere spent in 
studying English, as well as Chinese, but of course, 
being a native, she spent more of her time on 
Chinese studies. She was baptized at twelve 
years of age and at thirteen she was received into 
full connection w4th the church. 

" Miss Howe brought her over to America to 
study medicine, as it was necessary in order to 
obtain a thorough training, for many practical 
courses, such as dissection, etc., are not allowed 
in China. 

" Ax. the age of eighteen she passed the entrance 
examinations to the medical department of Michi- 
gan University at Ann Arbor. She finished her 
course of studies the next year and began her work 
among her sisters in China, pointing them to the 
Great Physician, who is able to make them every 
whit whole." 

A lawyer said to Dr. Kahn : "I am glad you 
are going back as a doctor. Doctors are more 
needed than missionaries." 

" No, sir," said the doctor. " I do not think 
so, eternity is longer than time." Though zealous 
in the profession, both doctors feel that the soul is 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 203 

even more important than the body, and the great 
purpose in their faithful ministration to the sick 
and weary bodies of their sisters is to lead the 
sin-sick soul to the Great Physician. 

The success of these two devoted young doctors Government 
was so remarkable that it attracted the attention Recognition, 
of the government, and a very flattering offer of 
positions in the new university in Shanghai was 
pressed upon them by a high official. This they 
did not deem it wise to accept, but remained in 
the service of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society, where they are free to do their Christian 
work. 

"But," some one asks, ''are the medical needs Dr. Terry's 
of China so great? Have we not provided for a Field, 
visitation of most of the people?" In one of the 
districts in North China in which the only 
woman evangelist is Miss Ella Glover, and the 
only physician Dr. Edna G. Terry, the superin- 
tendent says: "If each missionary were to visit 
one village a day, rain or shine, summer and 
winter, week after week, month after month, 
never resting, never making a return visit, it 
would take eleven years to complete one visita- 
tion. In the meantime must the people die," or 
shall we put forth a little extra energy and send 
more men and women to the front? This is by 
no means one of the largest districts in the 
bounds of the conference, and in some of the con- 
ferences there are very much larger ones, notably 
in West China. When one contemplates the 



204 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Insufficient 
Equipment. 



Government 
Competition. 



tremendous influence that has been exerted on 
China by the few workers who have been sent, 
allowing for all the influence of governments and 
of business, he cannot but feel that the income 
from the funds and the lives invested has been 
great indeed, and that there are few places in the 
world where greater results could have been ob- 
tained in the same length of time. 

The marvel which these women have accom- 
plished grows when it is remembered with what 
meager and inadequate equipment it has been 
done. To-day the Boards are facing the necessity 
of modern structures, adequate, well lighted, san- 
itary, with the best equipment, if they are to 
maintain the leadership so gloriously won. Miss 
Withers, a Baptist missionary, wrote to her Board 
the following appeal, which might with equal 
justice have been sent to many others: — 

"As I have said often and often before, China 
is waking to her own needs these days and, as 
you well know, has men and women in all walks 
of life, in America and in England and Germany, 
training to become their own teachers. What has 
that to do with us and our hospital .f* Only this 
-—that when they start their hospitals, medical 
schools, etc., these people will be their own 
teachers, and then, where is the Christian hos- 
pital with its influence to come in? Where is 
the opportunity to teach in the homes the love 
of the Great Physician? Gone! It frightens me 
to think about it. If we have the best to offer 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 205 

them, they will not feel the need of a school or 
hospital of their own here, and thus our work can 
go on. Now is our time, before these govern- 
ment hospitals and schools are opened. 

''Then, furthermore, why should you send us 
out here to waste our lives, when our lives can 
and will count for so much, if only we have things 
we need to use in our work? 

"Pardon me if I seem to speak strongly on this Modem Tools 
subject. But the time has come when we must Indispensable, 
have these things, or stop thinking we can run 
a hospital. If we ever get the place fixed up 
once as it should be, then we can and will make 
it pay for itself. But first we must have it fur- 
nished." 

Says a Methodist report in regard to the Isa- 
bella Fisher Hospital, the only hospital for 
women in the city of Tientsin: — 

"The urgent need of this work is a new 
building. The hospital is a row of Chinese 
rooms with dirt floors that are damp and unsani- 
tary. The patients are not as crowded as they 
would be in their homes, and the rooms are 
cleaned and whitewashed often. For twenty 
years Dr. Stevenson has worked under these dis- 
couraging circumstances." 

There is no greater opportunity for enlightened a Great Op- 
philanthropy than is presented in China to-day. portunfty. 
Here are two hundred million women and girls, 
the mothers and future home makers for one 
fourth the human race. They are desperately in 



206 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Education of 

Native 
Workers. 



^Vo men's 
Medical Col- 
leges. 



need of just what the hospital, the woman's med- 
ical college, the nurses' training school will bring 
them. One tenth the sum that would found a 
memorial hospital in America will found one in 
China. What would endow a bed in New York 
will found a nurses' training school in China. 
A living memorial that shall go on repeating it- 
self in blessing to unnumbered generations is 
within the reach of every Christian woman in 
America who contemplates a five or ten thousand 
dollar shaft in a cemetery. 

And now I come to one of the most important 
parts of woman's medical work — the education 
of native assistants. China must eventually be 
converted by converted Chinese, and healed by 
native physicians. We welcomed the day when 
we began to see departments of Western medicine 
opened in connection with the government uni- 
versities. There was at the time a fight made on 
the part of the conservatives in Peking, that 
Chinese medicine should also be taught, and a 
school and hospital of Chinese medicine was 
opened in the Southern city of Peking. So far as 
I know it has not been duplicated anywhere else 
in the empire. 

What now about medical colleges for Chinese 
women. Most Chinese women, who are medical 
graduates, so far as I know, have taken their 
courses in Western colleges, and this for the 
reason that no woman's college worth the name 
had thus far been opened. Efforts have been 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 207 

made in South China, notably at Canton, and 
something has been done. The North Cliina 
Educational Union has undertaken to open a 
woman's medical college in Peking. 

The following account of the school is taken Dr. Gloss and 
from the report of Dr. Anna D. Gloss, who is tte Union 
one of the instructors and is at present in charge : — Medical Ccl- 

'^The location of th^"s school in Peking is for- ^^^ °^ 

rr^i T • Women, Pe- 

tunate for several reasons. The climate is pfood. i • . 

o king. 

The cold, dry winters leave little to be desired. 
There are mission stations at convenient distances, 
where girls from the South can go to spend their 
vacations out of the city. 

^*The lectures are given in Mandarin. Some of 
the men who have been giving lectures in the 
Union Medical College have consented to fur- 
nish the same lectures to the women that have 
been prepared for the men; thus with the mini- 
mum of labor, giving most valuable assistance in 
the teaching at the woman's college. 

'''Three years of English is required for en- 
trance, and English is continued as a study 
throughout the course, with the expectation that 
the students will be able to read medical journals 
in English and thus bje always able to keep in 
touch with the most advanced medical thought. 
The course of study as planned covers six years. 
The first three years are devoted to lectures and 
laboratory work, the last three to lectures and 
clinical work in the women's hospitals of the 
Methodist and Presbvterian Missions. 



208 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



Report of its 
Work. 



Interdenomi- 
national Co- 
operation. 



"Whatever may have been the attitude of other 
countries toward the advent of the woman physi- 
cian, China certainly has alwavs given her a hearty 
welcome. That her work is waiting her is proven 
by the rapid growth of the college in Canton, 
and the royal reception given its graduates." 

Students come from various parts of China; 
those from Nanking find no difficulty in studying 
in the Peking dialect; those from Foochow, how- 
ever, need an extra year to study the new dialect. 
Dr. Hopkins, one of the leading teachers of the 
union medical colleges, says that the four young 
women in his classes are the equal of the best 
medical students he has seen. 

The first class was opened in February, 1908. 
Dr. Manderson and Dr. Stryker send this year's 
report: "The Union Medical College for Women 
completed its third year last January. The two 
members of the first class are now in their fourth 
year, and are maintaining the high standard of 
scholarship which they set for themselves during 
their first year. There are four students in the 
second class. They are all women of strong 
Christian character; in the laboratory, in the 
recitation room, and on examination days they 
have done excellent work; and their enthusiasm 
and ready responsiveness have been a constant 
inspiration to their instructors. 

"Dr. Eliza Leonard, of the American Presby- 
terian Mission, is Dean of the college. During 
the year the Presbyterian Mission has furnished 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 209 

three instructors; the American Board, one in- 
structor; the Methodist General Board, one 
instructor, and the Methodist Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society, three instructors. We feel 
that the Presbyterian Mission has been most gen= 
erous, since they haye as yet no students in the 
college. The course of study was planned for 
six years. Experience, howeyer, has shown that 
by lengthening each term the work may be done 
in a shDrter time. We now expect our first class 
will be ready for graduation in fiye years, or in 
January, 1913. As the number of students in- 
creases, our need of a building becomes more 
urgent. For laboratory facilities this year we are 
indebted to the Woman's Union College in the 
American Board Mission. Mrs. Jewell has pro- 
vided dormitory space in the Mary Porter Game- 
well School, and Miss Powell has arranged to 
haye meals seryed for the medical students in 
the Sleeper Davis Memorial Hospital. Part of 
the lectures and recitations have been given in 
the Methodist compound. " 

The college at Canton under Dr. Mary Fulton, Work at 
mentioned by Dr. Gloss, has had the advantage of Canton, 
being in a port city that has long been open to 
foreign intercourse, where prejudice has been 
broken down, where the advantages of a great 
work for men has long been an example. We 
may learn a lesson from the success of this col- 
lege. What has happened in Canton may happen 
in any one of a dozen other cities. 



'210 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



Training 

Nurses. 



Uncared-for 
Sufferers. 



Connected with almost every hospital there is 
a class of young women who are studying" to be- 
come trained nurses or helpers. This harmonizes 
with the whole genius of Chinese medicine, for 
as we have indicated, the Chinese doctor, under 
the old regime, was nothing other than a man 
with a disposition to prescribe, while the mid- 
wife, who takes the place of the doctor for 
women, is only a woman with a certain amount 
of experience. 

The necessity for trained nurses is apparent 
when we come to consider the way the sick are 
left uncared for. In the case of a necrosed bone, 
tubercular joints or glands, or other similar 
affections, the patient is often removed from the 
living rooms to some outhouse. This is one of 
the common sights a physician is called upon to 
witness. A little child, a beautiful young girl, 
a mother, or an old woman, lying in some out- 
house, shut off from all the members of her fam- 
ily, is left to lie uncared for and alone. If the 
family is poor, and the relatives cannot afford to 
hire an attendant, the poor sufferer lies alone 
from morning till night and from night till morn- 
ing, the paper windows all gone and swarms of 
flies buzzing about her. Thus she awaits death 
to relieve her. The physicians tell us that there 
are thousands of such suffering ones to-day in 
China where an operation, with the wound 
properly treated and dressed, would restore the 
sufferer to her family. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 211 

The character of the missionary physician has Character of 
been one of the greatest assets of the Christian tke Mission- 
Church in China. It may be doubted whether ^^^ Pnysi- 
any group of men and women have done more to 
interpret Christ to the Chinese than have the 
medical missionaries. The stories of Dr. Eleanor 
Chesnut and of Dr. Macdonald Westwater, "the 
saviour of Liao-yang, " are instances in point. 
A less familiar example is the part taken by Dr. 
Macklin in the recent capitulation of Nanking to 
the revolutionary forces. Dr. Macklin is at the 
head of the Christian hospital in Nanking. An 
article in the * 'North China Daily News" 
(Peking) of December 8th, says : — 

''A prominent part in the capitulation was 
taken by Dr. Macklin, who was accompanied by 
the Rev. Frank Garrett and Mr. Hales. Dr. 
Macklin's story is full of interest. 

"It appears that the day before the capitula- Dr. Macklin 
tion, an Imperialist General Chao, in command «* banking, 
of one thousand men, had two of his fingers dam- 
aged by a piece of shell or a bullet, and that in 
the afternoon Dr. Macklin operated on him and 
fixed him up. He told Dr. Macklin that he and 
his men were anxious to surrender but that they 
were afraid to, and that he was not going to 
leave his men in the lurch. Dr. Macklin told 
him that he had better go round and get together 
a few leading men for a conference which they 
could hold at his (Dr. Macklin's) house. 



212 



CHINAS NE W DA T 



Arranges 
Capitulation 
to Revolu- 
tionaries. 



''This was apparently done, and the conference 
decided to surrender, whereupon Dr. Macklin 
volunteered to go out and talk to the Revolu- 
tionaries, and his offer was eagerly accepted. 
He, with a party, got down to the gate (presum- 
ably the one opposite Purple Mountain — probably 
the Taiping Gate) about 4 a. m. and started to 
dig a way through (the gate had been filled up 
like the other). In the meantime Dr. Macklin 
went up into the wall with lanterns, which lan- 
terns immediately drew shell fire, presumably 
from Purple Mountain. Macklin put his lamp 
out quick, but some of the Chinese apparently 
didn't know how to put the lamps out, and Dr. 
Macklin hurried round and did it for them. The 
firing continued, so they moved down off the 
wall and waited a bit. Just as dawn began to 
break they went up on the wall again at another 
spot and this time apparently succeeded in attract- 
ing attention not only from Revolutionaries but 
from quite another and undesirable quarter also. 

"There was at this time still an Imperialist 
force (estimated at 750) defending the Tartar 
city, and directly some Revolutionaries advanced 
in response to the signals of Dr. Macklin's party, 
this force opened fire both on the Revolutionaries 
who retired, and on Dr. Macklin's people." 

The article then goes on to show how Dr. 
Macklin dug his way through the loose rubble 
that filled the gate and led a party of Chinese 
toward the revolutionary lines, although in con- 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 213 

stant peril through the whistling bullets. Through 
his efforts a conference was" arranged and the 
force in the Tartar city persuaded to surrender. 
A large number of the wounded were brought 
into his hospital for treatment, and then the 
doctor was put in charge of the relief work. 

The article continues: — 

''Such relief is only to be given by his organi- j^^ Ckarge of 
zation in return for work, and I understand that Relief Work. 
this is to take the form of colonization of the 
large tracts of waste land inside the city, hitherto 
the property of Manchu pensioners who would 
neither work it themselves or allow it to be 
worked. In this v^ork he has the candid assistance 
of the new officials, and he is very optimistic. 

''According to Dr. Macklin, all private prop- 
erty, even of Imperial officials, is being scrupu- 
lously respected, and the land which is to be taken 
by the authorities for his scheme is only public 
land or the land granted to the pensioners re- 
ferred to above (corruptly according to the Revo- 
lutionaries). 

"Whatever maybe the eventual fate of these 'land 
colonies,' there is no doubt that his relief schemes 
are well worthy of support. It is only fair to Dr. 
Macklin, however, to add that he never asked the 
writer to draw attention to his plans — he just told 
me about them very enthusiastically, and I was 
struck first by the rapidity with which he has got 
to work, and secondly by the great fact that there 
at least is a real effort not to pauperize." 



214 CHINAS NEW DAT 

Dr. Macklin had previously written under 
date of October 20th : — 

*^I am now circulating lots of literature. It is 
a great time, and literature counts. . . . 
"Just enjoying the revolution. . . . 
*'I enclose a card of Mr. Kung, who is in the 
seventieth-odd generation from Confucius (Kung 
Fo Yei). He is a graduate, I believe, of Yale, 
and a student of finance. I had a long talk with 
him on finance and single tax. I had a long 
talk the other day with Wu Ting Fang. They 
may call me in to help them on taxation. It 
takes with intelligent Chinese. Now is the psy- 
chological moment for hard work. I want to get 
literature in the hands of the peace commis- 
sioners." 
A Missionary We have here the cheering spectacle of a medi- 
Reformer. cal missionary who is engaged not only in reliev- 
ing physical suffering but has time as well to 
study into the single tax philosophy of Henry 
George and to become an active propagandist of 
this one of the advanced applications of Christian 
theory to political practice. This is illustrative 
of a big section of missionary activity that seldom 
gets catalogued. 
Summing Up: In this chapter emphasis has been put on the 
Need of PLy- physical need of China for what Western medi- 
sicians and cine Can do, and upon the spiritual bearings of 
that work on the permeation of the nation by the 
good tidings of liberty to body and soul. In 
closing I wish to emphasize still further the 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 215 

urgency of the present crisis. There are hospi- 
tals in China which have been closed for a year 
at a time for want of physicians. All are under- 
manned both with physicians and nurses. The 
loudest call is a call for service. Dr. Ellen C. 
Potter of the Woman's Medical College in Phil- 
adelphia has said in a recent paper: — 

We now face and have faced for several years an 
ever-increasing demand for medical missionaries (both 
men and women) and an alarming decrease in the 
supply. 

During the last ten years there has been a marked 
decrease in the number of men and women studying 
medicine for the following reasons : — 

First. — A systematic campaign based on financial 
considerations has been waged to decrease the number 
of those entering upon the study of medicine because 
of previous "over production"; this over production, 
however, was considered only in relation to our own 
country. 

Reports of the council on medical education of the 
American Medical Association show that the number 
of medical students in the United Slates in 1900 was 
25,171; in 1910, 21,528. The total number of women 
students in 1904 was 1,129; in 1910, 907. 

The total number of medical graduates in 1900, 
5,214; in 1910, 3,976, of which number only 3,544 
passed the State Boards of Medical Examiners. 

Bulletin No. 4, Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- 
vancement of Teaching, page 154, states that in consid- 
ering the reconstruction of medical education in the 
United States it is estimated that an annual production 
of 3,500 physicians will be necessary to meet the de- 
mands in this country for at least the next generation. 
When these figures are compared with those given 



216 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

above it is evident that in the year 1910 ther-e was prac- 
tically no surplus for foreign service. 

Second. — The increased academic requirements for 
admission to medical schools has materially cut down 
the number of students. This tends to improve the 
quality of the average physician, but bars out admirable 
candidates with good general culture yet lacking in 
certain technical academic counts. 

Third. — The increased cost of maintenance of medi- 
cal schools, because of the large demands in laboratory 
equipment, has increased tuition fees ; (note 2), and the 
high cost of food stuffs has increased living expenses, 
thus excluding many candidates on the financial basis 
alone. 

Fourth. — Last but by no means least, many young 
women are deterred from the study of medicine by the 
protests of friends and relatives who cannot endure 
that they should brand themselves as ^'strong-minded" 
(for say what you will women physicians are still 
looked upon as a little ''queer" if not actually 
"peculiar"). 

This then accounts for the decreased number of med- 
ical candidates before Foreign Mission Boards. 

In the April number of the "Intercollegian" (1911), 
I find the medical needs of many Boards enumerated, 
and I find sixty -one msn and thirty v/omen physicians and 
twenty-nine trained nurses needed at once^ while many of the 
Boards state that they have been searching for candidates for 
from three to five years* 

How are we to work out the solution of this problem 
and to bring more women into the field of medicine.'' 

First. — Let the Boards co-operate in the establishment 
of an Information and Press Bureau. Let them make 
it a business to get in touch with the academic student 
world through its college journals (remembering that 
not one undergraduate in a hundred sees "The Inter- 
collegian" or her denominational mission papers unless 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 217 

already committed to the service ot missions), through 
vesper services, missionary meetings, Christian Asso- 
ciations, Summer Conferences, demonstrating the defi- 
nite need in specified places of medical v.'orkers. 

Let this Press Bureau reach the nurses through their 
local clubs and other organizations and through the 
nursing journals. The young women who have neither 
gone to college nor yet to study nursing, and who are 
still searching for their places in the world's work, can 
be told of the need in a very definite way through the 
young people's church societies and church papers, and 
through the various summer conferences. 

Second. — Let the Boards themselves establish, or influence 
wealthy men and women of the various denominations to 
establish^ scholarships in wisely chosen medical schools, and 
let the scholarships cover more than mere tuition, that 
the student may be relieved of all strain except that 
incident to her studies. 

Third. — Have a medical member on each Board. 
This medical representative should be not only a capable 
practitioner, but should have some knowledge of hos- 
pital inanagement, and if possible also of medical teach- 
ing, that she may give the best service to the Board. 

Fourth. — Establish a system of short term medical 
missionary service — two or three years — as has been suc- 
cessfully done in some other lines. These short ser- 
vices will be of great value in easing the work for the 
permanent incumbent, making vacation and furlough 
more easily possible and in some instances securing for 
the Boards permanent workers. 

There are two fields to be cultivated if we would 
fully meet the need for medical workers — that at home, 
which we have just considered, and the field in the 
Orient, for the women of the East are capable, as are 
our own, of becoming good physicians and nurses. 
In the very nature of things we cannot expect to send 
from this country all the medical help that is needed. 



218 CHINA'S NEW BAT 

Let our Boards co-operate for medical education in 
the East; selecting an already established hospital in a 
large city, or establishing a new union hospital around 
which it will be possible to develop a medical school. 

We;, as women, should remember that the teaching of 
these young women of the East must be largely by 
women ; therefore the great weight of responsibility for 
the suffering women of the Orient rests on us. 

The suggestions of Dr. Potter are so weighty 
with good sense that I have ventured to quote 
her quite fully. Along some such lines not only 
the Women's Boards but the members of local 
auxiliaries must work if this most urgent need is 
to be met. 
c J XT J A second need has already been disclosed, and 

Decond INIeed . -' ' 

of Equipment ^^^^ ^^ -^^^ modern, scientific, adequate equipment 
in both buildings and apparatus. This need may 
best be met by interesting Christians of ample 
means in the definite needs of individual hospi- 
tals. These needs can be obtained from the 
Boards, and if brought home to those already in- 
terested in hospital work here at home they could 
be met without a doubt. 

The religion of the Great Physician must be 
adequately presented to the Chinese if that great 
empire is to be won for Christ. 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

"The call for women doctors is especially emphasized 
(in China) as their services are most acceptable and, as 
a rule, essential to the treatment which suffering wom- 
anhood often needs. Facilities for the medical educa- 
tion of the Chinese, both men and women, are greatly 
needed and produce results of large usefulness as a 
missionary agency. 



MEDICAL MISSIONS 219 

''The value placed upon woman's work for woman 
in China is frequently referred to with much urgency in 
the replies of missionaries." (''Report of Edinburgh 
World Missionary Conference/' Vol. I^ p. 305.) 

''For reasons already stated China's women are a 
strategic element to be won ; yet unless specially sought 
after, they cannot be largely affected by the gospel. 
Attendance upon an ordinary street chapel is out of the 
question, and even attendance at Sunday church service 
calls for a willingness to face criticism and misunder- 
standing which few are ready to meet, particularly 
among the wealthy and official classes." ("Edin- 
burgh World Missionary Conference Report," Vol. 
I, page 94. ) 

"In 1893 Baroness Burdette-Coutts prepared for the 
Chicago World's Fair a book of about five hundred 
pages devoted to the details of woman's organized work 
in charity and philanthropy in Great Britain. One thou- 
sand one hundred and sixty-four societies were selected 
for the inquiries : 362 societies in aid of children, 102 
in aid of girlhood, 130 for the friendless, 200 in aid of 
women, 62 orders of deaconesses. Two hundred and 
ninety of these reported 84,129 voluntary workers and 
4,814 paid workers. There are by a carefully prepared 
and most conservative estimate in the English-speaking 
world of to-day not less than two million women locally 
known as workers to be depended upon in philanthropic 
movements ; women so situated in respect to their home 
duties that they can contend with the hunger and dirt of 
the outside world, and this they do. 

"If the other great religions of the world are as fruit- 
ful of practical altruism as Christianity there ought to 
be one million philanthropic women workers in the 
Turkish Empire, five million Hindu women devoting 
themselves to philanthropy, and seven million of 
Chinese women in the service of humanity. 



220 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

''The attitude of Christianity throughout Christendom 
toward poverty is emphasized by a contrast with the great 
ethnic religions as to their surplus altruistic energy in 
aid of the poor. Christianity maintains in non-Christian 
lands too institutions for lepers, 247 foundling homes and 
orphanages, 651 training schools for nurses and physi- 
cians, 379 hospitals and 783 dispensaries." (Condensed 
from Tenney's ''Contrasts in Social Progress.") 

" 'Little did I dream, when sending my money to 
China, that a Chinese girl would come over here and 
lead my own daughter to Christ,' said a Christian 
woman in Ohio, as she gratefully acknowledged that 
Dr. Hii King Eng had been the means under God of 
winning her child to Christ. 

"In 1896, five years after Dr. Hu's return, two other 
Chinese girls, Ida Kahn and Mary Stone, graduated 
with honor from the medical department of the Michi- 
gan University." (Methodist Leaflet. ) 

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. What are the Chinese practices of inidwifery? 

2. In what ways is it advantageous to train a Chinese 
woman in medicine in her own country? 

3. Howdo medical missions strongly commend thegos- 
pel ? Howdo they diffuse a knowledge of Christianity? 

4. Which do you regard as most needed in China, 
general hospitals, or hospitals for women and children? 

5. What deductions would you make in regard to the 
ability of Chinese women from the first Chinese women 
physicians ? 

6. How many more modern hospitals ought China to 
have if she were to be as well provided as the United 
States? 

7. How many hospitals should we have in the United 
States if we were no better provided than China? 

8. What part may the missionaries play in helping 
China to make the change to modern medicine? 

9. Why is the present moment critical ? 



CHAPTER VI 



THE PRINTED PAGE 



One of the miracle workers of the present day Power of 
is the printed book. It was to be expected that Print. 
one of the signs of China's awakening would be 
an immense increase in her demand for books of 
Western learning. It has been impossible to 
translate and circulate with sufficient rapidity 
books to satisfy this new hunger of the mind. 

It is the aim of this chapter first to show the Aimof Chap- 
high relative importance of literary agencies in ter. 
shaping the new life in China because of her 
pre-eminent reverence for literature, second to 
recount the agencies of the Christian Church 
already at work, and third to stimulate the 
further development of such agencies. 

I was talking one day with a Chinese gentle- 
man, and the conversation drifted to the various 
influences that were being brought to bear upon 
the Chinese Government and the Chinese people. 

'^What do you think," I asked him, ''is the Metkods of 

best method of bringing any subject to the atten- Influencing 
. - ;, . 1 1 ->>5 the Chinese. 

tion ot the people as a whole.? 

''What do you mean?" he asked. 

"Well," I replied, "there are various ways 

we have in the West of arousing the people and 



222 



CHINA'S NEW DAT 



Cliinese Love 
Literature. 



Nursery 
Rhymes. 



getting their attention. One is by lecturing, 
another by preaching, another by schools and 
education, and another by writing books and 
tracts, and publishing newspapers." 

*'Two of these methods are familiar to the 
Chinese, and have been for centuries, and two 
are not." 

^'Which are familiar.^" I asked. 

"Education and literature are methods which 
the Chinese have used for twenty to thirty centu- 
ries to arouse and interest the people, " he replied. 

"What about preaching and lecturing.'*" I 
asked. 

"They are new to us," he replied. 

"Then of education and literature, which has 
the wider influence.?" I asked. 

"Education has a deeper and more lasting in- 
fluence, but literature has more rapid and wider 
results." 

"From the cradle to the grave," he went on 
to say, "the Chinese love literature. The child, 
with open mouth and twinkling eyes, listens to 
the nurse, in the city or in the country, repeating 
rhymes appropriate to its particular neighbor- 
hood. I have seen the little girl in the city witli 
a little red and black spotted beetle on her finger 
repeating, — 

Ladjbug, ladybug fly away, do. 
Fly to the mountain and feed upon dew, 
Feed upon dew and sleep on a rug, 
And then fly away like a good little bug. 



THE PRINTED PAGE 223 

''Thousands of such rhymes may be found in 
all parts of China." 

''Yes," I replied, "I am aware that China is 
rich in such nursery lore." 

"Leaving the nursery," he went on, "we have Primers, 
books appropriate for children of all ages. As 
soon as the little boy is ready to enter upon his 
studies, he is given a primer that will instill into 
him all the chief incidents of the history of the 
past, and another that will help him to under- 
stand what is the proper thing to be done under 
all social and human relations." 

"That is the 'Ti Tze Kuei,' or Rules of Be- 
havior for Children, is it not?" I asked, for I 
had already translated the primer into English, 
and was struck with many of the good bits of 
advice it contains. For instance among the very 
first lines the boy is taught that: — 

Love in each heart for all people should spring, 
Specially to the benevolent cling, 
Strength if you've left, be it small, be it great, 
Spend it in study, both early and late. 

In another place the boy is taught that: — 

When riding or driving, you always descend 

From your horse or jour cart, when you meet with a 

friend. 
Nor remount till your friend has passed by, I should 

say, 
A hundred, or more than that, steps on his way. 

In the chapter on education we have given a 
definite outline of the literature that the Chinese 



224 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

have prepared for the education of their youth. 
It is scarcely necessary to add here that practically 
all of this literature is designed with a definite 
aim of preparing boys for official life, and as 
there was no possibility of girls occupying any 
official position, when the education of girls was 
mentioned their first question was: — 
Why Educate "What do you want to educate a girl for? She 
Girls? has no prospect of getting into official life." 

"Well," you answer, "an education will make 
her larger, broader, better; more able to per- 
form the duties of life, and better able to take a 
place beside her husband." 

"But there is no place beside her husband for 
her to take," he answers. "Her place is in the 
home, having babies and taking care of the 
family. There is no place in social or official 
life for a man and a woman to be side by side. 
The only place where she can influence or advise 
him is in their own private apartments." 

"Well," you answer, "teach her to read so 
that she can familiarize herself with history, 
poetry, philosophy, fiction, and have some way 
by which to entertain herself when she is lonely. " 
Do Not Want "No," he replies, "we do not want her to 
Her to Read, read novels. The novels are not fit for her to 
read." 

It is indeed worthy of note, that while the 
Chinese classics are among the purest in the 
world, containing not a single word which could 
not be read before a mixed audience, their fiction 



THE PRINTED PAGE 225 

is of a very different style. Men who have spent 
years reading Chinese novels with the design of 
finding one that is fit to translate into English, 
have given up in despair. Their novels are too 
realistic. They have no idea of omitting the 
unmentionable things of life, but make them a 
part of their plot and their conversations. The 
''Hung Lou Meng" or Dream of the Red Cham- 
ber, is one of their largest and best novels, and 
describes Chinese life better than any but a 
Chinese could describe it, and has been read by 
more people, I have no doubt, than any other 
novel in the world. But it would be impossible 
to think of reading it in a mixed company. 

I cannot think of Chinese poetry without wish- ci^i^ggg 
ing that we had some poetical genius who could Poetry by 
give us a worthy translation of some of China's Women, 
best productions. Dr. Martin has given us a 
very good translation of an inscription on a fan 
written by a lady of the court — a concubine — and 
presented to the Emperor about 18 B. C. It is 
a very touching simile couched in choice lan- 
guage:— 

Of fresh new silk all snowy white, 

And round as harvest moon, 
A pledge of purity and love, 

A small, but welcome boon. 

While summer lasts, borne in the hand 

Or folded on the breast, 
'Twill gently soothe thy burning brow, 

And charm thee to thy rest. 



226 CHINA S. NE W DA T 

But ah ! when autumn frosts descend, 
And winter winds blow cold, 

.No longer sought, no longer loved, 
'Twill lie in dust and mould. 

This silken fan then deign accept. 

Sad emblem of my lot, 
Caressed and cherished for an hour. 

Then speedily forgot. 

Book of Prof. Herbert A. Giles, a prince of translators, 

Poetry. among other good things has given us a snaall 

volume of '^Chinese Poetry in English Verse," 
from vs^hich the following specimen, familiar to 
every schoolboy, is taken. It is from Su 
Tung-p'o, vs^hose name itself is poetic. He was 
a great poet as well as a great official who lived 
on the east slope of a mountain, and so he usually 
signed himself East Slope Su. He says: — 

One half hour of a night in spring is worth a thousand 
taels ; 

When the clear sweet scent of flowers is felt and the 
moon her luster pales. 

When mellowed sounds of song and flute are borne 
along the breeze. 

And through the stilly scene the swing sounds swish- 
ing from the trees. 

The Tand ^ wish it were possible to give some idea of 

Poetry. the period of the Tang poetry, from the seventh 

to the tenth centuries — the dark ages of Europe. 

It is the most brilliant epoch in Chinese history. 

The reign of the Emperor Ming Huang was the 

focal point of the period — the Elizabethan Age. 

He was himself a general, a poet, a patron of 



THE PRINTED PAGE 227 

literature in all its forms, and he established 
schools in every village. He was a loAxr of music, 
and, as we have indicated elewhere, it was he 
who took a trip to the moon with his magician, 
who threw his staff into the air and it became a 
dazzling bridge on which the two could travel. 
In the mansion of the moon they beheld such 
performances, and listened to such strains, as 
enabled him after his return to establish a college 
for the education and drilling of young men and 
maidens for the operatic performances played by 
what is called "the young people of the Pear 
Garden." Certain it is that anewstvle of music, 
of a more joyous nature, was created at this time 
to take the place of the stiff and solemn kind that 
was then in vogue. 

It is his encouragement of poetry upon which Poetry as 
his fame rests, and by which he did most for the Abundant as 
literary development of his people. Wherever a ^^*^'"- 
poet was found, — and it is noteworthy that most 
of them came from the mountainous regions of 
Szechuan, or the beautiful lake regions of the 
central provinces, — he was invited, urged, and if 
necessary, forced to appear at court. During this 
reign poetry was as abundant as water, and was 
taken by all classes with greater avidity than 
they took their food. It is said of one of the 
officials that he spent much of his time under" some 
fine trees in his courtyard reciting poetry, and when 
called upon by anyone, he would send word to his 
visitor that he was engaged in official business 



228 CHINAS NEW DAT 

and must beg to be excused. It is said also of 
one of the poets that having been raised to the 
position of Secretary of the Imperial Banqueting 
Court, his poetry gained such an influence over 
the ladies of the palace that they never wearied 
of repeating his verses; while of another, we are 
told that having been captured by a band of rob- 
bers, the captain, when he learned his name ex- 
claimed, ''What, the poet! Well you need not 
be afraid, we won't hurt you. We like your 
poetry too well, make us some now." To which 
he at once responded with the following verse: — 

Robbers Love The rainy mists blow gently o'er the village by the 
Poetry. stream, 

When from the leafy forest glades the brigand daggers 

gleam, 
And yet there is no need to fear nor step, from out the 

way, 
For more than half the world consists of bigger rogues 
than they. 

The men loved poetry, the women loved poetry, 
even the robbers in the cornfields loved the poets 
and their songs. 
Pbilosophy. For the sake of Chinese literature it would be 

of interest to review Chinese philosophy in the 
two periods B. C. 600-A. D. 97, and that of the 
eleventh century of our era. All that can be given 
concerning their literature, however, will simply 
be to show what great things the Chinese have 
done in this realm, in order to show that we must 
do something worth while if we expect to effect 



of Man 



THE PRINTED PAGE 229 

any changes in their mode of thought. A page 
or two must be devoted to some phases of Chinese 
philosophical discussions. 

More than three hundred years before Christ Dispute 
there was begun a discussion on ''the nature of About Nature 
man," which lasted for more than a thousand 
years. It was pursued with the greatest 
thoroughness and aroused widespread interest. 
One school of philosophy said that the nature of 
man was evil, another that it was good, a third 
declared that it was neither good nor evil, while 
a fourth taught that it was both good and evil. 

A last effort was made to harmonize these 
different views by Han Yu, "the Prince of Liter- 
ature," about 800 x\. D. ''The nature of man," 
said he, "dates from the beginning of life; the 
feelings date from his contact with external 
things, or birth. According to their nature there 
are three grades of men: — 
The Superior, 
The Middle, and 
The Inferior. 

"The Superior grade is good, and good only; 
the Middle grade is capable of being led, it may 
rise to the superior or sink to the inferior; the 
Inferior is evil, and evil only. The question 
then arises as to whether the nature of the 
Superior and Inferior grades can be changed. I 
reply, — By study the Superior may become more 
intelligent; by restraint, or awe of power, the 
Inferior comes to have few faults. But the 



230 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

grades have been pronounced by Confucius to be 
unchangeable when he says, 'The progress of 
the Superior man is upward, that of the Inferior 
man is downward.' " 
Big Tilings in This is merely a glimpse of the literature of 
Literature. the Chinese on two great subjects: poetry, and 
this one phase of philosophy. They have one 
history of China, which has been fitly termed ''a 
stack of histories, " in 3,264 volumes. One med- 
ical work contains 168 books, 1,960 discourses, 
on 2,175 different subjects, with 778 rules, 231 
diagrams and 21,739 prescriptions. They have 
one encyclopedia of the best literature which con- 
tains 22,937 books. The Emperor K'ang Hsi, 
the first great Manchu, wrote 176 books, besides 
governing China 60 years; while his grandson 
Ch'ien Lung, who gave up the throne after having 
ruled 60 years, so as not to outdo his grandfather, 
had written no less than 33,950 poetical composi- 
tions, published in 382 books, all completed 13 
years before the end of his reign, while the works 
of these last years have never gone through the 
press. They have one biographical encyclopedia 
of 1,628 volumes, 376 of which are devoted to 
famous women, more than one fifth of the whole, 
while in their biographical dictionary of artists 
of 24 volumes, four are devoted to the lives of 
great women, one sixth of the whole. 

In the conversation with which I began this 
chapter, my Chinese friend said that they love 
literature, which I think I have shown to be true. 



THE PRINTED PAGE 231 

He said also that the best way to bring any sub- 
ject to the attention of the Chinese was by the 
printed page, and I asked him what evidence he 
had for the truth of such a statement. 

"Study the introduction and growth of Bud- Buddkism 
dhism, " he replied. '^It is a system which has Established by 
but little to recommend it over against Taoism Literature, 
and Confucianism, except that during China's 
dark ages, it deluged China with a literature, 
most of w^hich, it is true, was in translation of 
books brought from India, some of which were 
good, but most of them indifferent, and these at 
a time when the making of books was anything 
but an easy task. 

"Buddhism was introduced in 65 A. D. By the Making 
year 400 the Em.perorwas such an ardent disciple Buddbist 
of the Buddhist faith as to call a council of 600 Books, 
priests to assist in the translation of books, at 
which he was himself present, while two of the 
princes helped to transcribe the work of the 
tranlators. In A. D. 451, a Buddhist temple 
was allowed in every city, with 40 or 50 priests, 
and the Emperor himself shaved the heads of 
some of those who took the vows. In A. D. 
467, the Prince of Wei constructed an image of 
Buddha fifty feet high, in which he used five 
tons of brass and six hundredweight of gold, 
and five years thereafter he resigned his throne 
and became a Buddhist monk." 

"But what has that to do with literature.?" I 
asked. 



232 CHINAS NEW DAT 

New Books. ^' Let me finish," he answered, and continued, 

'^At the beginning of the sixth century there were 
not less than 3,000 Hindus in China, while the 
temples had multiplied to 13,000, and the prince 
himself discoursed publicly on the Sacred Books. 
The first Emperor of the Liang dynasty three 
times assumed Buddhist vows, expounded the 
sutras to his courtiers, and finally gave up the 
throne and entered a monastery at Nanking. By 
730 A. D., we are told that 2,278 different works 
had been translated by not less than 176 different 
translators. Such was the growth of Buddhism, 
due for the most part to the influence exerted by 
the importation into China of such a vast amount 
' of new thought and literature. 

Tang Poetry ''Nor was this all," he went on. ^'It is sup- 

Result of posed that the period of the Tang poetry is due 

Buddhist ^Q ^he literary impetus given by the making of 

" ^' tonic dictionaries, the discovery of the four tones, 

and other study of the language done by the Bud- 
dhists in making these translations. The thought 
which I wish to impress upon you," he contin- 
ued looking me right in the eye, ''is this, that 
the establishment of Buddhism is due largely to 
the fact that it prepared for itself a vast amount 
of literature. In doing so it enriched China, 
not only by wliat it imported, and the develop- 
ment it brought about, but also by the impetus it 
gave to the Chinese in the revival of learning." 

''It seems to me that what you say is worth 
consideration," I remarked. 



THE PRINTED PAGE 233 

''If it stood alone, perhaps it might not be," Catkolicfsm 
he answered, "but it does not standalone. What EstatHsked ty 
I have said of Buddhism is true also of Catholi- Literature, 
cism. This as you know was first introduced 
into China by John de Mento in A. D. 1293, but 
was exterminated by the Ming dynasty a century 
later, and it was not reintroduced until it was 
brought by Mathew Ricci in A. D. 1589, about 
three hundred and twenty years ago. Father Ricci 
arrived in Peking January 4, 1601, and by the 
year 1636 he and his associate workers, together 
with their Chinese converts, had published no 
less than 340 volumes, some of them religious, 
but most of them on natural philosophy and 
mathematics. This book making was kept up by 
Longobardi, Schall, Verbiest, and their associates 
and successors, the last two being the most inti- 
mate advisers of the last emperors of the Ming 
and the first emperors of the present dynasty. It 
is not too much to say that the astronomy and 
mathematics of the Chinese were changed so 
materially as never to allow them to go back to 
their old theories, and because of this literary 
assistance, more perhaps than anything else, 
Catholicism was established throughout the em- 
pire. During the first fifteen years of the eight- 
eenth century, in the governor-generalship of 
Kiangnan and Kiangsi alone, there were 100 
churches, and a hundred thousand converts. 
The survey of the empire was carried on by the 
Emperor's command from 1708 to 1718 under 



234 CHINA' S NE W DA T 

the direction of the Jesuits, of whom Regis, 
Bovet, and Jartoux were the most prominent 
members." 

I was not a little surprised at the readiness 
with which my friend quoted all these names and 
dates, but I said nothing and he continued. 

^'When the missionaries were expelled under 
Yung Cheng, it is said that three hundred thou- 
sand converts were deprived of teachers, and after 
the numbers had been reduced by persecution, the 
priests are accused by one of their own number 
of conducting themselves with such ostentation as 
to be unable to reach the masses. The accusation 
made by Father Ripa is as follows: — 
Conversions '^ 'The diffusion of our holy religion in these 

tke Result of parts has been almost wholly owing to the cate- 
Jiooks. chists who are in the service, to other Christians, 

or to the distribution of Christian books in the 
Chinese language.' In 1861 we are told that 
they had 31 bishops, 664 European priests, 
559 native priests, 1,092,818 converts, 34 colleges 
and 34 convents. Allowing for a large overesti- 
mate, or for many adherents who were weak dis- 
ciples, they have still a goodly company for 300 
years' work. The Catholics in China are doing 
no small amount of bookmaking, and what they 
do they do well, putting up their volumes in a 
form and style that would do credit to any press. 
An examination of the catalogue of the Pei Tang 
press in Peking will indicate the character of the 
work they do." 



THE PRINTED PAGE 235 

^'May I ask if you belong to the Catholic 
Church?" I inquired, for I began to have a sus- 
picion that he was praising his own creed. 

"I belong to no church," he answered; ''I 
simply try to see things as they are. The Roman 
Catholics and Buddhists began in the right way 
to make a success of the introduction of their 
systems into China, and had the former not been 
ambitious for temporal power when they beheld 
their efforts more or less crowned with success, 
Catholicism would have been far more wide- 
spread than it is to-day." 

''You think then, that literature is an important 
adjunct in the introduction of religion into 
China," I remarked. 

''Contrast with these two systems the attempt Nestorians 
at the introduction of Christianity into China by Failfrom 
the Nestorians in A. D. 505. During the period Lack of 
when Buddhism was making such monumental °° ^' 
efforts in the production of literature and taking 
such rapid strides, the Nestorians brought Chris- 
tianity to China, but so far as we know at present 
they have left no record of their presence other 
than the self-eulogistic tablet at Sianfu, a replica 
of which may be found in the Metropolitan 
Museum in New York. To blot out Catholicism 
and Buddhism from China, one would have to 
destroy a large part of her best literature and 
learning. For while Buddhism cannot claim a 
single book that ranks with the sacred books of 
Confucianism and Taoism, she has insinuated 



236 CHINA S NE W DA T 

herself into all the ramifications of Chinese liter- 
ature and life. And, indeed, this Nestorian tab- 
let contains a very complimentary reference to 
Buddhism, in the description of how the priest 
I Ssu clothed the naked, fed the poor, attended 
on and healed the sick, and buried the dead. If 
he were a Buddhist priest it is a complimentary 
reference, and, if not, the mention of Buddhism 
in this connection is still an indication that 
Buddhists were beyond all others in such benevo- 
lent work. 

^^To destroy Catholicism would throw Chinese 
astronomy and mathematics back where they were 
a thousand years ago. But Nestorianism has 
passed away, leaving nothing but the epitaph on 
a single tombstone to tell of its existence. The 
inscription says that ^the Scriptures weretranslated 
and churches built;' and this was done ^when the 
pure, bright, illustrious religion was introduced 
to our T'ang dynasty.' But if the Scriptures 
were translated, and if other books for the in- 
struction of the people were written, they have 
either all passed away or lie buried among the 
uninvestigated debris of Chinese literature." 

I did not know whether to agree with him or not, 

but he was giving me a lot of things to think about, 

and I allowed him to proceed without interruption. 

Motammed *'We are not confined, however," he went on. 

Failed from *'to the tablet for the proof that Nestorianism 

Lack of ^^g i3oth widespread and influential. This fact 

is testified to by such early travelers as Sir John 

Mandeville and Marco Polo, of the general 



Books. 



THE PRINTED PAGE 237 

truth of whose statements there is at present little 
reason for doubt. In addition to these we have 
various other proofs, chief among which is the 
general belief in the Christian Prince, Prester 
John, and his dominions, and in the record of 
Friar Odoric of Pardenone, the story of whose 
travels in Western India and Northern China 
agrees in the main with the record of Sir John 
Mandeville. But, as we have said, although the 
Nestorians were numerous during the Yuan 
dynasty, at the present time with the exception of 
the stone tablet, so far as I am aware, not a trace 
of them is left. Such could not have been the 
case if they had been as diligent as the Buddhists 
in the preparation of a good literature." 

^^I cannot but allow that there is a good deal Islam, 
of truth in what you are saying," I admitted. 

''What I have said of the Nestorians," he con- 
tinued, ''may be said with equal emphasis of the 
Mohammedans. Very little is known by the 
common people about them and their creed. 
They are exceedingly uncommunicative on sub- 
jects relating to themselves. When their system 
was introduced into China, and how, it is diffi- 
cult to say. It is usually attributed to Wokassm, 
a maternal uncle of the Prophet, during the 
seventh century. As early as the T'ang dynasty 
the Mohammedan missionaries came to Canton 
and Hangchow. 

"It was not introduced, however, merely at one Brought in at 
place. It was carried by sea to the southern Many Places. 



238 CHINAS NEW DA 7' 

cities, and by caravans of traders from Central 
Asia to the northwest, west and southwest 
provinces. It will thus be seen that the Moham- 
medans have been in China for not less than 
twelve or thirteen centuries. In all the border 
provinces they are numerous. Their customs in 
regard to pork, wine and idols are very strict. 
They have a school in connection with almost all 
of the large temples for the study of the Koran in 
the native Arabic. But they seem not to have 
learned the influence of literature upon the minds 
of the people, and its disintegrating power on 
Chinese life; and so they are practically without 
books for the instruction of the masses, and 
Poor in Liter- without a distinct literature as a representative of 
ature. the sect. Consequently they have made less 

progress as an integral factor in Chinese religious 
life in thirteen centuries than Buddhism did in 
five. It is not improbable that when the Nes- 
torians were cut off from the mother church by 
the rise of the Moslems and the conquests of the 
Mongols they gradually amalgamated themselves 
with the Mohammedans, as they had long since 
ceased to maintain the purity of their faith, as 
well as to circulate the Scriptures, which we are 
told had been translated into Chinese. Certain 
it is that the two sects which prepared an abun- 
dant literature succeeded in establishing them- 
selves in China, and the two which did not, have 
failed to get a hold upon the hearts of the 
people." 



THE PRINTED PAGE 239 

"And what do you think of our Protestant 
methods?" I inquired. 

"Wise," he answered, "the wisest that could 
possibly be adopted." 

"In what way? may I ask." 

"In the opening of schools and hospitals as 
well as churches, and the making of books," he 
replied. 

"Will you explain what you mean by the 
making of books?" I requested. 

"Protestantism," he replied, "began with Protestants 
literature. It would seem almost as if some Began witk 
mysterious power was directing the pioneers of "^ ^* 
Protestant missions in this particular direction. 
First, they were shut out from preaching to the 
people, and their efforts were directed toward 
the making of dictionaries and other books which 
would assist them in the translation of the Scrip- 
tures, and to the compilation of books which would 
help the people to understand the Bible, and give 
the people some idea of the world as it exists 
outside of the Middle Kingdom. This, however, 
is only one form that literature took with Protes- 
tant missions in those early days. Their Bible 
translation was one advantage they had over the Translated 
Romish Church which withholds the Scriptures tke Bible, 
from the common people. The various Bible 
societies are among the pioneers in taking up 
this work. Nevertheless those who are engaged 
by the Bible societies did not confine themselves 
to this line alone. But with all deference to all 



240 CHINA S NE W DAT 

other literature, the Bible is the great civilizer. 
I know, as you do, that wherever the Bible has 
gone, progress has gone with it. I realize that 
the governments that are wielding the power of 
the world to-day, are the lands with the Bible. 
I understand too, that there never has been a 
system of thought organized into a science outside 
of a land with a Bible. I know that the wealth 
of the world is in the hands of the people who 
have the Bible. I realize that the music of the 
world has been inspired by the gospel, and exe- 
cuted for its praise, while the progress in the 
manufacture of musical instruments is the result 
of the demand on the part of the cathedrals and 
churches. I understand that the best art of the 
world — the progress and development of art — is 
the result of the inspiration of the gospel, and it 
has been executed by the man with a cross about 
his neck and a Bible in his robe. Only the man 
with a microscopic vision can spend his time 
picking to pieces the Book which has led in the 
progress of the world's civilization. Jesus Christ 
is the light of the world in every sense in which 
that sentence can be interpreted, for every oil lamp, 
gas light, electric, acetylene, oxyhydric or any 
other light, except a tallow candle or a dish of oil 
with a wick floating therein, has been made in a 
land with a Bible. The light, the progress and 
the comfort of the world is the result of the Bible, 
and so it was wise that Protestantism began by 
translating and circulating the Scriptures." 



THE PRINTED PAGE 241 

"You have a high appreciation of the Bible," 
I suggested. 

"Nobody that has lived in a land vs^ithout a Influence of 
Bible, and has studied the history of the progress tlie Bible, 
of thought, of invention, of clean cities, of com- 
fortable homes, methods of travel, labor-saving 
devices, can avoid having a high appreciation of 
the Bible," he answered. 

"But, you know, there are some people in my 
country who do not give the Bible credit for that 
progress," I volunteered. 

"Those are the people who have either never 
lived outside of a Christian country, or who make 
no distinction between intellectual and religious 
thinking, or whose lives do not harmonize with 
the teachings of the Scriptures," he replied. 

"No," I answered, "they think the white man 
has done it." 

"Then why did not the white man do it before Chinese 
he got the Bible?" he asked. "My ancestors Ahead of Us 
were a thousand years ahead of yours, before you °^^°^^ ^e 

^,, -r»-ii \i7 1 1 1- -n T- got tke Bible. 

got the Bible. We were clothed m silk, living 
in brick houses, with a great government, a 
great literature and a great civilization, when 
your ancestors were clothed in skins and living in 
caves, mud huts, or nesting in the trees. The 
only way you can explain your progress, is by 
admitting that your Bible made your church, 
your church 5ent her priests and missionaries, 
they established your colleges and made your 
books, and your civilization is the result." 



242 



CHINAS NEW DAT 



So much for the views of my Chinese friend. 
They certainly are worthy of careful thought and 
point the way to one of the greatest lines of in- 
fluence open to the Christian Church. The in- 
nate reverence for theprintedpage on the part of the 
Chinese people is unequalled by that of any other 
nation. Even a scrap of paper fluttering in the 
street is carefully rescued if it contains printed 
characters. The Protestant missionaries have not 
been slow to take advantage of this trait. 
Protestant It was not long after mission work was begun 

Translations, by the Protcstants before they began the translation 
of such books as the "Pilgrim's Progress," and 
the preparation of "Evidences of Christianity," 
"Bible Stories," and various small books, stories 
and tracts which the conditions and circumstances 
of their teaching, preaching or medical work de- 
manded, and so tract societies were formed in 
various parts of the empire. It would be a diffi- 
cult matter to try to say how many editions "Pil- 
grim's Progress" and "Evidences of Chris- 
tianity" have gone through, to say nothing of the 
number of volumes that have been printed. 
Ctristian An amusing story is told about the "Evidences 

Evidences. ^f Christianity," prepared by Dr. Martin. A 
copy of it and one of the Gospel of Luke was 
given to an official at the same time by a mis- 
sionary. Some time thereafter he met the official 
and during the conversation asked, "How did 
Your Excellency enjoy the books?" 



THE PRINTED PAGE 243 

"'The Evidences of Christianity, '" he re- 
plied, "I enjoyed very much. It is logically 
written from beginning to the end." 

''And how did you enjoy the 'Good News of 
Luke'?" he inquired further. 

"Well, to be frank," he answered, "I do not 
think Luke sticks to the subject." 

In addition to the tract societies there was es- Tract and 
tablished a number of years ago a "Society for Otter Socie- 
the Diffusion of Knowledge," the design of *^^^- 
which was to publish and sell to the Chinese a 
large number of books that may or may not be 
distinctively Christian or religious. Books like 
McKenzie's "Nineteenth Century," Edward 
Bellamy's "Looking Backward," religious or 
semi-religious stories, books that may be used as 
study books, or for collateral reading in schools, 
or for the scholars in the old regime to use to 
become acquainted with the elements of Western 
learning, have been published by this society. 

When the Emperor Kuang Hsii turned his at- Demand for 
tention to foreign learning and began buying Books of So- 
their books, such a demand arose for their pub- " . '"j. 

fusion of 

lications throughout the empire, that although ci^j-istian 
they kept their presses going night and day, they Knowledge, 
were unable to produce books fast enough to sat- 
isfy the public appetite. It was at this time that 
Chang Chih-tung in "China's Only Hope," ad- 
vised that Chinese members of legations in 
foreign countries should study the languages of 
the people to which they are sent and translate 



244 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

the best works of those countries into Chinese. 
He commended very highly the work done in this 
line by such missionaries as Drs. Young J. 
Allen, Timothy Richard, and others who were 
devoting their time to the preparation of books, 
and he advised that large editions of these books 
be printed and scattered broadcast throughout the 
empire. 

About this time there was a good deal of 
pirating of foreign books by the native printers 
of Shanghai. Many of the best books had 
scarcely left the press, before a pirated edition 
by the photographic process, was reproduced by 
the native shops in the city. Legge's "Four 
Books," which regularly cost eight or nine 
dollars, could be bought in a pirated edition for 
$1.75, and even Williams' dictionary of the 
Chinese language was put upon the market at a 
phenomenally low price. 
Need of Lit- ^ ^^^P ^^ following from the ''New York In- 
eraryMen. dependent." It is in regard to a call from 
Dr. Timothy Richard, the head of the Society for 
the Diffusion of Knowledge among the Chinese : — 
"No missionary in China has a higher repu- 
tation for wisdom than Timothy Richard, and it 
is worthy of note that he calls for one hundred 
missionaries who shall devote themselves entirely 
to literary work. The purpose is to reach the 
higher class of the Chinese, the scholars and 

\ leaders. In this he agrees with the Rev. Gilbert 
Reid, who has made himself a missionary to the 



THE PRINTED PAGE 245 

literati and officials, believing that through them 
the people as a whole are to be reached. 

''While prejudice against the missionary has 
been removed there is as yet no great move- 
ment among the leaders of China to accept the 
Christian faith. The missionary labors have not 
been directed to them very much. The literature 
has been chiefly meant for the instruction of con- 
verts in schools and churches. Mr. Richard and 
other thoughtful missionaries believe that a chief 
reason for the failure of Christianity to attract the 
leading classes in China is because it has not 
been presented to them in the right way. Mr. 
Richard says: — 

'' 'They think that there is one great lack in our 
mission methods now, viz., men who have first 
studied the religion and literature of China and 
know what its strength and weakness are on the 
one hand, and who also on the other hand have 
so studied the deep philosophical and historical 
fruits of Christianity in other lands, that they 
can clearly point out where Christianity excels 
the best the Chinese have in Confucianism or 
Buddhism. Moreover, Christians have not come 
to destroy, but to fulfill. Mere assertion will not 
convince. The superior ideals will have to be 
made clear and definite, so as to win the admira- 
tion of the best.' 

"Mr. Richard is one of a number of thought- 
ful missionaries who believed that if a hundred 
men were to devote themselves to this kind of 



246 CHINA'S NEW DAT 

work they might succeed in a comparatively 
short time in attracting large numbers of the 
leaders in the Chinese Empire to accept Chris- 
tianity, in which case the masses would follow. 
Buddhism won its way through its high litera- 
ture. It would be well if every mission should 
set aside one or two of its best literary men for 
this task." 
Appetite for You will obscrvc that it is taken for granted by 

Literature. all who write on China that the Chinese have a 
tremendous appetite for literature. We have 
seen how certain systems have been established 
through the influence of literature while others 
which produced no literature have failed. We 
have seen what the tract societies are doing, and 
though they are working for the most part among 
the lower classes, we should remember that the 
lower classes of to-day may be the middle classes 
of to-morrow, and the upper classes of the near 
future. Missionary societies do a wise thing 
when they transfer those missionaries who have 
literary ability to this particular work, relieving 
them of all other duties that will interfere with 
their best literary output. I venture to say that 
missionaries all over China have found that persons 
come and apply for membership in the church 
who were first led to take this step by the reading 
of such books as "Evidences of Christianity," or 
others of a like nature. All those who have the 
ability to make such books should write as many 
of them as possible. 



THE PRINTED PAGE 247 

In adition to the books issued by the various ManySctol 
societies, there are many scholars who publish ars PuMisb 
their own works. There is an Educational As- TkeirOwr 
sociation which publishes a large number of °^ ^' 
scientific and other works. There are institutions 
of learning which issue publications prepared by 
their own teachers, and there is scarcely one of 
the larger missions which does not issue books 
either from their own or other presses, all of 
which help to swell the ranks of what might be 
termed a Protestant Christian literature. 

Prior to the Boxer movement there were but Newspapers 
few newspapers in China. Now there are more 
than two hundred newspapers, with a rapidly in- 
creasing circulation. Formerly the official classes 
paid little attention to this class of literature, but 
with the beginning of Kuang Hsii's reforms the 
paper edited by Dr. Allen began exerting a tre- 
mendous influence. Many of the leading journals 
have been bought by men connected with provin- 
cial governments, and their future utterances will 
be more carefully guarded no doubt than 
formerly. 

One of the recent developments is the upspring- Chinese Pub 
ing of printing offices all over the empire. One "smng C 
of the most noted of these is ''The Commercial P^^^ 
Press, Limited," of Shanghai. This Press was 
started twelve years ago by Christian Chinese, 
who had learned the trade while employed by 
the Presbyterian Mission Press. After a time, 
these young and ambitious Chinese naturally 



om- 



248 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

wanted to go into business for themselves. They 
therefore opened a small job printing shop near 
by. By skill and diligence, their business soon 
increased. When the new government system of 
education was adopted and foreign text-books 
were called for, the managers were enterprising 
enough to foresee the opportunity. They en- 
larged their plant and began to turn out the 
desired books. To-day, this Press is the largest 
in all Asia, employing over one thousand hands, 
all of them Chinese except about a dozen Japanese. 
It is equipped with the latest and best German, 
English and American machinery. It has a cap- 
ital of $1,000,000, one third of which is held by 
Japanese and two thirds by Chinese. It uses not 
only Chinese paper, but stock imported from 
Austria, Sweden, England and Japan, chiefly 
from Austria and Sweden. It has opened twenty 
branch presses in various cities of China. It is 
managed on the co-operative plan, sharing profits 
w-th its employees. The net profits are divided 
into twenty parts. Five of these are distributed 
among the employees, ten go to the shareholders, 
three to the reserve fund, and two to the schools 
of children of employees, to sick and injured em- 
ployees and the widows and orphans of those who 
have died. The net profits distributed in these 
ways last year were $200,000 Mex. It is grati- 
fying to know, not only that the managers of this 
great institution are Christian men, but that of the 
three founders and present managers, one is the 



THE PRINTED PAGE 249 

son-in-law and the other two are sons of the first pu- 
pil of the Presbyterian boarding school at Ningpo. 
The head of every important department, except 
one, is a Christian, and sixty per cent of the men 
who are in responsible positions are Christians. 
This Press now issues most of the text-books 
used in the government schools and a large pro- 
portion of the bank notes which are in circulation. 

The variety of the literary work that has to be Reformed 
done in China may be gathered from the follow- Ckurch. 
ing from the Reformed Church in America as 
taken from their report of their Amoy Mission. 
Varieties of books have to be made for the col- 
loquial dialects. 

''The work of Dr. Talmage in preparing his 
dictionary has been described in another con- 
nection above. The other members of the mis- 
sion had a prominent share in the preparation of 
the Bible in the Amoy Romanized Colloquial, 
and in 1905 the preparation of an edition of the 
New Testament with references was done almost 
entirely by the members of our own mission. 
A number of text-books, both in Chinese char- 
acter and Amoy Romanized, have been pre- 
pared by our missionaries. The number of 
books in the Romanized Colloquial is now 
more than fifty volumes, and more than half of 
these were translated or written by our own 
workers. Much more of this work would have 
been done had not the pressure of other work 
prevented. ' ' 



250 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

Mission The most important mission press in China is 

Presses. that of the Presbyterians at Shanghai which turns 

out millions of pages annually. The Baptist 
Publication Society circulates its literature n the 
fields of all the Baptist missions in China and 
sends books also to the Chinese scattered in many 
countries. One tract written by a Chinese pastor 
is definitely known to have been the means of the 
conversion of several hundred persons. It is en- 
titled, "The Truth Manifested." The Metho- 
dists also have a mission press at Shanghai. No 
church in China is doing more to furnish whole- 
some literature for the people than the China 
Inland Mission. The Methodist Church of Can- 
ada is opening likewise a large work in the great 
Province of Szechuan. 
Schoolbooks. One of the greatest works in the line of litera- 

ture that is now in progress is the production of 
schoolbooks. The old primers mentioned in the 
beginning of this chapter have served their day 
and are now put aside forever. The Commercial 
Press in Shanghai has young Chinese scholars, 
educated in Christian schools, familiar with the 
various series of schoolbooks used in America, 
preparing similar series for use in the native 
schools. Primers, with conversations and illus- 
Modern trations, like the modern primers now issued in 

Mettods. such an attractive variety by our great publishing 

houses, together with graded readers up to the 
sixth or higher, prepared on the same scientific 
plan as our own. The children study now just 



THE PRINTED PAGE 251 

as our children do, understanding the meaning 
and significance of each character when they learn 
it, and not having to wait until they have com- 
mitted the whole book before they are taught 
what it means. This is one of the triumphs of 
mission work in China, — the liberation of a 
hundred million oi more of children from the 
shackles of the old regime, and the teaching of 
modern methods, — liberating the memory and 
developing the reason. Time would fail to tell 
what has been done. Would that the American 
people might realize that now is the time to in- 
duce China to catch step with Europe. Why 
cannot we show her that what made us will make 
her — the gospel of the Master .f* 

Some one has said that the translation of. the Work of 
Bible into a language is like the running of a British Bible 
railway through undeveloped country. The first ^o"^*y* 
Bible society to enter China was the British and 
Foreign Bible Society. In 1810 it published a 
Chinese translation of Acts by Morrison. Since 
then it has translated many versions in Mandarin, 
and in Wen-li in thirteen local dialects. The in- 
crease in their circulation for the last decade, 
5,200,908 copies, was more than the entire circu- 
lation of the first eighty years. 

In 1910 all previous records were broken when 
in one half day 72,000 books left the depot. 
During the year 2,107 cases of Scriptures weigh- 
ing 862^ tons have been dispatched. The total 
of Bibles, Testaments and portions sold was 



252 CHINA'S NEW DAY 

1,508,220, given away 8,129. The amount con- 
tributed in China as donations in support of the 
Society's work was $5,503.80. 
American The American Bible Society has broken all 

Bible Society, records with a sale of 849,276, an increase of 
forty per cent on the sales of 1909. If to this is 
added the number of Chinese Bibles, Testaments 
and portions sold by them not directly to the 
Chinese but to other mission agencies we have a 
total of 1,028,496, a gain of over one hundred 
per cent. 
Tke National This differs from the other great societies in 
Bible Society putting out illustrated gospels and portions, con- 
taining brief explanations of some puzzling terms 
in addition to the Bible text. In this pioneer 
work it has the backing of the missionaries. It 
has circulated 1,358,384 Bibles, Testaments or 
portions, a gain of 243,322. 
Cbina a Bible The combined sales of these three great agen- 
Buying cies put China among the foremost Bible buying 

Nation. nations of the earth. The vast total of sales from 

the beginning of their work to the end of 1909 is 
43,796,815 copies or portions of the Bible. 
Pocket Testa- At the missionary conference in Shanghai in 
ment League. 1907 a committee was appointed to promote Bible 
study. Following the phenomenal success of the 
Pocket Testament League in Korea, it was decided 
at the close of the Chapman-Alexander meetings 
in 1909 to push the work in China. The Bible 
societies published the Gospel of Mark in a special 
edition with ornamental cover. This was sold 



THE PRINTED PAGE 253 

at a very low price. Thirty thousand copies 
have been sold for this purpose. 

ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS 

''Three times has God in his providence given us an 
opportunity in China to win the whole empire, but each 
time the Christian Church has failed because of weak- 
ness in the literary department. First, sixty years ago 
the Taipings had more than a hundred million follow^ers 
but had no adequate literature to counteract the Old 
Testament idea of the conquest of Canaan and therefore 
failed. 

''The second failure was twelve years ago when re- 
formers, who believed in the Fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of nations, though they had over a 
million followers, in three years, failed for lack of ade- 
quate Christian literature acting simultaneously on the 
whole empire. 

"The third failure was last year, when the great 
founder of modern education in China asked a mission- 
ary to provide text-books for the twenty universities of 
China, but this opportunity could not be taken advan- 
tage of because Christian missions had not a sufficient 
number of literary men to accomplish the task. These 
are among the great tragedies in Christian missions." 
(Rev. Timothy Richard, D.J)., at Edinburgh Confer- 
ence.) 

"Christianity is a reading religion. Strong and val- 
iant books are in demand throughout Christendom. 
The mental ongoing which is so characteristic of the 
Christian peoples is through their conquering so many 
books and taking to themselves something of their 
mighty personality. China, the most literary of the 
non-Christian nations, has no books to speak of, aside 
from one library of one hundred and sixty-eight thou- 



254 CHINAS NEW DAY 

sand volumes, and small libraries in the eighteen 
provinces and little gatherings of books in the Bud- 
dhist monasteries. But if Confucianism were as good 
a patron of books as is Christianity in America there 
would be in the Celestial Kingdom to-day more than 
twenty-nine thousand libraries, each averaging eighty- 
five hundred volumes. 

''In the diffusion of literature the non-Christian faiths 
. . . (may be compared with the Christian). . . . Not 
until the Brahmans, the Buddhists, the Confucianists 
and the Mohammedans of the world flood Christendom 
annually with 381,166,106 pages of non-Christian litera- 
ture will they do what the united mission presses are 
now doing with Christian literature in non-Christian 
lands. . . . 

''To take up the comparative circulation of the Sacred 
Books. Not until the erudite scholars of China send 
forth Mencius and Confucius in four hundred and 
twenty-six translations, and circulate them broadcast 
throughout Africa and among the American aborigines 
as well as among the white barbarians shall we believe 
that their philosophy of life will prevail among all 
nations." (Edward P. Tenney, "Contrasts in Social 
Progress," p. 205.) 

"The most important thing in China just now is that 
the women be educated." (Yuan Shi ki. ) 



QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 

1. Show how the need of translation of the best books 
of the West into Chinese opens a new field for work. 

2. Are the gifts for this necessarily the same as those 
needed for the usual type of missionary work? 

3. If you could translate into Chinese, what ten books 
would you select first? 



THE PRINTED PAGE 255 

4. If jou could translate one brief tract containing a 
statement of Christian truth, what one would jou 
select ? What are the greatest tracts ever written? 

5. Aside from religious literature what do you think 
the greatest need in the way of reading matter on the 
part of Chinese Christians? 

6. What countries are the heaviest purchasers of the 
Bible? 

7. What is the relation of the colporteur to other 
forms of missionary work? 

8. What wovild it cost to supply a station with a 
hundred Chinese Bibles and Testaments? 

9. Describe the methods of Bible study in mission 
schools. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The list of books that follows will be found valuable 
for reference and should be put into public libraries. A 
Committee from leading churches can secure this in 
almost any town without difficulty. If study classes 
desire any or all of the books they may be obtained 
through the Central Cominittee on United Study of 
Missions, West Medford, Mass. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Changing Chinese, Professor Ross (Century). 

$2.40. 

Of compelling interest. 

Changing China, Lord and Lady Cecil (Macmillan). 
$2.00. 

Written by commissioner sent out to locate the 
Oxford Mission. 
Things Chinese, Dyer Ball (Scribner's). $4.00. 
A mine of information. 

Under the Empress Dowager, Bland and Backhouse 
(Lippincott). $4.00. 

An authoritative account. 

Two Years in the Forbidden City, Princess Der 
Ling (Moffatt, Yard). $2.00. 

A fascinating and reliable account of court life by 

a lady in waiting. 

The Education of Women in China, Margaret Bur- 
ton (Revell). $1.50. 

The best book on the subject, indispensable. 

Educational CoNquEST of the Far East, R. E. Lewis 
(Revell). $1.00. 

Not new, but valuable. 

The China Mission Year Book, 1910 and 1911. 2 vol. 
(Christian Lit. Soc, Shanghai.) 

Two exceedingly valuable handbooks. 

New Forces in Old China, Arthur J. Brown (Revell). 

An admirable survey of the situation. 

Medical Missions : Their Place and Power, John 

Lowe (Revell). $1.50. 
China and America To-day, Arthur H. Smith (Revell). 
$1.25. 

Stimulating and suggestive. 
Chinese Characteristics, Arthur H. Smith (Revell). 
$2.00. 

Illustrated — indispensable 



258 BIBLIOGRAPHT 

Village Life in China, Arthur H. Smith (Revell). 

$2.00. 

A sociological study — invaluable. 

China in Convulsion, Arthur H. Smith (Revell). 2 
vol. $5.00. 

A superb study of the Boxer uprising — a wealth of 
illustrations, charts, maps, etc. 
Court Life in China, A. H. Headland (Revell). 

An intimate picture of court life, finely illustrated. 
The Real Chinaman, Chester Holcombe. 

Full of human interest. 

Yankees of the East, W. E. Curtis. 

Opportunities in the Path of the Great Physi- 
cian, Valeria F. Penrose (Westminster Press) . $1.00. 

Illustrated. Very readable account of Medical 
Missions. 
China's Book of Martyrs, Luella Miner (Westminster 
Press). $1.50. 

Record of heroic martyrdoms in 1900. 
A Yankee on the Yangtze, W. E. Geil (Armstrong). 
$2.00. 

Very attractive book of travel, fine illustrations, 
favorable to missions. 
The Coming China, J. K. Goodrich (McClurg). $1.50. 

Exceedingly interesting survey — well illustrated. 
Drugging a Nation, Samuel Merwin. 

A history of the Chinese opium curse. 
The Revolution of China, Arthur Judson Brown, 
D.D., 212 pp., 24 illustrations, map of China. 75 cts. 
A valuable reference book. 



INDEX 



Abeel, David, p. 119. 

Acupuncture, p. 180. 

Agriculture, Chinese, p. 141. 

Allen, Dr. Young J., p. 13. 

American Bible Society, p. 
252. 

American influence in Edu- 
cation, pp. 15, 76, 100, 
109, 113, 116. 124, 130, 
132, 142, 172, 189, 240. 

Anglo-Chines:e College, 
Shanghai, p. 72. 

Battle of Assam, p. 2. 

Baptist Missions, American, 
pp. 119, 122, 148, 151. 

Baptist Missions, English, 
p. 121. 

Bashford, Bibhop, pp. 110, 
153. 

Bement, Dr. Lucv P., p. 
194. 

Bible in China, pp. 240, 249, 
251-252. 

Bible Women, pp. 153, 175. 

Bixbv, Josephine M., Hos- 
pital, p. 186. 

Black, Mary, Hospital, p. 
193. 

Boone College, p. 127. 

Boxer Uprising, pp. 21, 34, 
125, 143, 171, 184, 247. 

British and Foreign Bible 
Society, p. 251. 

Bryan, Col. W. J., Testi- 
mony of, p. 146. 

Brown, Dr. A. J., p. 31. 

Bubonic Plague, p. 182. 

Buddhism, pp. 139, 140, 141. 
231-233. 

Burton, Margaret, p. 131. 

Cambridge University Mis- 
sion, p. 126. 

Canton Christian College, 
pp. 126, 128. 

Canton Hospital, pp. 188, 
209. 

Ceremony, Chinese love of, 
p. 4. 

Chang Chih-tung, p. 243. 

Chengtu, Union Educational 
Work in, p. 23. 



Chesnut, Dr. Eleanor, p. 
211. 

Chicago University Mis- 
sion, p. 126. 

Chih-tung, Chang, p. 14. 
China, Importance of, p. 43. 
"China's Only Hope," pp. 

13, 14, 243. 
Chinese Christians, pp. 69, 

73, 138, 142, 143, 144, 148. 
Chinese family customs, pp. 

56, 65, 66, 67, 75, 77, 81, 

82, 86, 130. 

Chinese language chang- 
ing, p. 31. 

Chinese, moral character of, 
pp. 36, 37, 75, 76, 143, 246. 

Chino-Japanese War, pp. 1, 
35. 

Chinese superstition, p. 79. 

Chinese Women Physicians, 
p. 198. 

Chinese Classics, Confu- 
cian, p. 92. 

Chinese Classic, One Thou- 
sand Character, pp. 91, 
223. 

Church Union in America, 
p. 123. 

Classics for girls, pp. 47, 

57, 90. 

Christian Chinese Women, 
pp. 3, 69, 73, 76, 78, 79, 

83, 84, 148, 153, 168, 189. 

Christianity, quality of Chi- 
nese, pp. 69, 73, 83, 138, 
143-148, 154, 164, 167-172, 
174. 184. 

Christian Union Effort, pp. 
120, 148, 150, 207. 

Christians (Disciples), Mis- 
sion of, pp. 122, 149, 150. 

Church of England Mis- 
sions, pp. 120, 121. 

Coal deposits, p. 17. 

Concubinage, pp 66, 85. 

Confucius, pp, 76, 133, 138. 

Confucianism, p. 140. 

Conger, Mrs., her services, 
pp. 23, 54. 



260 



INDEX 



Congregationalist Missions, 

pp. 118, 120, 147, 152, 171, 

194, 209. 
Conservatism, p. 1. 
Constitutional Commission, 

pp. 25, 111. 
Contrasts between Chinese 

and Western customs, p. 

37. 
Denbj, Col. Charles, testi- 
mony of, p. 145. 
Dennis, Rev. J. S., pp. 81, 

83, 84. 
Disease in China, pp. 178, 

210. 
Ding, Pastor, Chinese 

Evangelist, pp. 162-163. 
East China Union, p. 122. 
East China Union Medical 

College, p. 122. 
Edicts of Kuang Hsii, pp. 

15, 16, 17, 18, 35, 102, 104, 

105. 
Edict of Hsuan Tung, pp. 

29, 30. 
Education, classical system 

of, pp. 89-95, 98, 99. 
Education, classical system, 

defects of, pp. 94, 96, 100. 
Educational revolution, pp. 

15, 26, 38, 72, 74, 77, 88, 

102, 104, 105-109, 113, 124, 

132. 

Education of girls, pp. 46, 
74, 76, 77, 110-112, 113, 
117-121, 130, 135-137, 163, 
206, 224. 

Education, established by 
Western universities, p. 
125. 

Emperor Kuang Hsii, pp. 
7-12, 18, 19, 35, 101. 

Empress Dowager, birthday 
gift to, pp. 3-5; career of, 
pp. 5-7, 59, 106; deposes 
emperor, p. 19; issues 
edicts, pp. 22, 25, 26, 40, 
107; reactionary policy, 
pp. 34, 40, 43, 106; cor- 
ruption of her court, p. 37. 



Eng, Dr. Hu King, pp. 198, 

220. 
England, aggressions of, p. 

36. 
Eunuchs in palace, pp. 7, 8;, 

37. 
European politics, p. 13. 
Evangelists, Chinese, pp. 

148, 162. 
Factors in making New 

China, p. 1. 
Feng Shua, pp. 17, 79, 96. 
Fergusson, Rev. John C, 

p. 16. 
Fisher, Isabelle, Hospital, 

p. 205. 
Foochow University, pp. 

72, 123. 
Foot-binding, pp 57, 58. 
French Aggressions, p. 21. 
Friends, Mission of, p. 122. 
Fulton, Dr. Mary, of Can- 
ton, pp. 188, 209. 
Gamewell, Mary Porter, p. 

209. 
Generosity of Chinese 

Christians, p. 144. 
German Aggressions, pp. 

20, 35, 102. 
Glass, Dr. Anna D., p. 207. 

Goforth, Mr., of Canadian 
Presbyterian Mission, p. 
164. 

Government universities 
have missionary presi- 
dents, p. 15. 

Great Britain, opium treaty 
of, p. 24. 

Gregg, David, Hospital, p. 
188. 

Hackett Medical College, 
pp. 188, 189. 

Hankow Union Medical 
College, p. 122. 

Harvard, the Chinese, p. 
125. 

Hay, John, p. 104. 

Hayes, Rev. W. M., pp. 15, 

108. 
Hian, Aunt, p. 155. 



INDEX 



261 



Hope and Wilhelmina Hos- 

pitalSj p. 191. 
Hospitals, pp. 186-205. 
Husbands, henpecked, p. 50. 
Illustrative quotations, pp. 

34, 75, 128, 166, 218, 248. 
Immorality, Chinese, pp. 

83,85. 
Imperial Postal System, p. 

32. 
Industrial Conditions, p. 

142. 
Infanticide, p. 81. 
Intellectual revolution, pp. 

1, 13, 14, 15, 38, 62, 133. 
Interdenominational elitort, 

pp. 120-124. 
Japan, pp. 2, 3, 35. 
Japanese education, p. 124. 
Japanese thoroughness, p. 

183. 
Jones, Rev. G. Heber, p. 2. 
Kahn, Dr. Ida, p. 201. 
Kiaochiao, seized by Ger- 
many, p. 20. 
Kindergartens, pp. 150-153. 
Korea, p. 2. 

Kuang Hsii, pp. 7-21, 243. 
Language, remarkable 

changes in, p. 31. 
Li Hung Chang, pp. 23, 35, 

54. 
Literature, Chinese, pp. 

221-230. 
Literature, Chinese venera- 
tion for, pp. 221, 246. 
London Missionary Societ}', 

pp. 116, 121, 122. 
Luke, Gospel of, p. 8. 
MaJ General, story of, p. 52. 
Macklin, Dr., of Nanking, 

p. 211. 
Manchus, p. 29. 

Mandeville, Sir John, p. 
236. 

Martin, Dr. W. A. P., pp. 
15, 34, 105, 117. 

Martyrdom of Chinese 
Christians, pp. 143-144, 
174, 184. 



Mateer, C. W., p. 117. 

Medical Missions, pp. 122- 
126, 177-220. 

Medicine, Chinese, pp. 179- 
181. 

Mencius, p. 143. 

Methodist, Canadian, Mis- 
sions, p. 122. 

Methodist Episcopal Mis- 
sions, pp. 120, 121, 122, 
153, 154, 193, 205, 209. 

Miner, Miss, of Peking, p. 
118. 

Mineral wealth of China, p. 
17. 

Mines, Board of, p. 17. 

Mission Presses, p. 250. 

Missionaries Medical, need 
of, pp. 215-217. 

Missionaries, win govern- 
ment approbation, p. 33. 

Missionaries, testimony to, 
p. 145-146. 

Mohammedan missions, pp. 
237-238. 

Mongol girls' school, pp. 
111-114. 

Municipal improvement, p. 
33. 

Nanking University, pp. 72, 
122. 

Nestorian Missions, p. 235. 

Nevius, John L., p. 117. 

New Testament sent to Em- 
press, p. 3. 

Newspapers, Chinese, p. 
247. 

North China College, Foo- 
chow, p. 118. 

Nursery rhymes, pp. 90, 91. 

Nurses, Chinese, pp. 189, 
190, 210. 

Oberlin College, Mission 
of, p. 126. 

Opium problem, pp. 23, 24, 
25, 39, 62, 63. 

Opportunity, Supreme, in 
China, p. 74. 

Paoting-fu, Princeton Mis- 
sion in, p. 126. 



^62 



INDEX 



Parker, Peter, medical mis- 
sionary, p. 188. 

Peking Gazette, pp. 98, 105. 

Peking University, pp. 72, 
102. 

Persecution of Chinese 
Christians, pp. 143, 174, 
184. 

Philosophy, Chinese, p. 228. 

Physical suffering in China, 
p. 178. 

Plague, fighing the, p. 182. 

Poetry, Chinese, pp. 225- 
228. 

Political Amnesty, p. 30. 

Port Arthur, seized by 
Russia, pp. 20, 35. 

Postal Service, pp. 31, 32. 

Presbyterian Missions, pp. 
117, 121, 122, 208. 

Presbyterian Missions, Ca- 
nadian, p. 164. 

Princeton College, Mission 
of, p. 126. 

Protestant Advance, pp. 
166, 172, 239. 

Protestant Episcopal Mis- 
sions, pp. 120, 191, 192. 

Provincial assemblies, p. 27. 

Public school system inau- 
gurated by missionary, p. 
16. 

Publishing houses, Chinese, 
p. 247. 

Questions in review, pp. 44, 
87, 137, 175, 220, 254. 

Railroads, Board of, p. 16; 
expansion of, pp. 16, 33 ; 
loans, p. 29. 

Reformed Church Missions, 
pp. 119, 155, 191, 249. 

Reifsnyder, Dr., of Shang- 
hai, p. 193. 

Revivals, pp. 162-165, 167. 

Revolution, Chinese, pp. 
41, 42, 43, 54, 62, 211-214. 

Richard, Rev. Timothy, pp. 

13, 16, 244, 253. 
Roman Catholic Missions, 

pp. 233-236. 



Russian aggressiotis, pp. 20, 

35, 102. 
Sanitary conditions, pp. 

178, 210. 
Schools, missionary, p. 72. 
Shanghai, p. 125. 
Shansi University, p. 108. 
Shantung Union, p. 121. 
Single tax in China, p. 214. 
Sleeper Davis Memorial 

Hospital, p. 196. 
Smith, Rev. A. H., pp. 75, 

77, 118, 133. 
Society for diffusion of 

Christian knowledge, p. 

243. 
St. Elizabeth's Hospital, p. 

192. 
St. Luke's Hospital, p. 192. 
St. John's University, pp. 

72, 125, 131-132. 
Stone, Dr. Mary, p. 200. 
Student vevivals, pp. 162- 

163. 
Sunday schools, pp. 159-161. 
Sun Yat Sen, p. 171. 
Szechuan, opium reform in, 

p. 25; rising in, p. 29; 

education in, p. 122. 
Tang poetry, p. 226. 
Taoism, pp. 139, 141. 
Telegraph system, p. 33. 
Teng Chou College, p. 132. 
Tenney, Rev. C. D., pp. 15, 

16, 109, 117, 254. 
Translation of Bible, p. 251. 
Translations of English 

Works, pp. 190, 242-246. 
Training schools for nurses, 

pp. 191, 210. 
Tsao, Lady, Chinese author, 

p. 54. 
Tuang Fang, p. 130. 
Turner, Julia M., training 

school, p. 189. 
Union missionary activities, 

pp. 120-127, 148, 150, 207. 
Union Medical College for 

women, p. 207. 
Wang, Old Mother, pp. 73, 

156. 



INDEX 



263 



Wang, Dr., Chinese martyr, 
p. 185. 

Weihsien College, p. 121. 
Wesleyan missions, p. 122. 
Westwater, Dr. Macdonald, 
p. 211. 

Woman, a noble, her brave 
deed, pp. 69, 114. 

Woman's Board of Mis- 
sions, p. 150. 

Woman's position chang- 
ing, pp. 62, 73, 76, 78, 83. 

Women, Chinese, impor- 
tance of, pp. 45, 76, 78, 
80 ; education of, pp. 46, 
47, 48, 112, 130, 131, 189 ; 
edit newspaper, p. 48; 
learned lady, p. 48; poels, 
pp. 49, 59, 225; position 
in the home, pp. 53, 57, 
65, 73, 76, 81, 189; admi- 



ration of American home, 
p. 55; artists, p. 59; 
rulers, pp. 59, 60; demi- 
7no}ide, pp. 64, 83 ; the 
slave girl, pp. 67, 69-71, 
83 ; the concubine, pp. 66, 
83, 85; the Bible woman, 
pp. 153, 175; the nurse, 
p. 190; physical needs of, 
pp. 186, 189, 219; the 
physician, p. 198. 

Woman's Union Missionary 
Society, p. 193. 

Yale University,the Chinese 
mission of, p. 125. 

Yuan Shi Ki, governor of 
Shantung, pp. 16, 22, 77, 
108. 

Yu-wei, Kang, "the young 
Confucius," p. 14. 

Yu, Miss, Chinese evange- 
list, p. 148. 



MAY 17 1912 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




010 502 320 ^ 



